Fetching
One moment.
Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
180. On ne peut pas dire que Marie soit née d'un corps stérile quoique le corps d'Anne eût été stérile, ce qui .provient des desseins de Dieu. Comme ils avoient été des gens pieux , craignant Dieu , par ce moyen leur teinture u'avoit point été souillée. Vu qu'ils dévoient engendrer celle que le seigneur vouloit hautement bénir , Dieu sut bien la rendre féconde en son tems , et cela dans la vieillesse , lorsque l'ardeur appartenant aux élémens de ce monde fut éteinte , comme on le voit à Sarah , femme d'Abraham. 81. Car si l'ame demeure dans la crainte de Dieu , alors la teinture dans laquelle l'ame s'élèveest pure aussi, quoiqu'elle nesoitpasaffranchiedu péché d'héritage. Ainsi néanmoins Marie est réellement engendrée de Joachim , et tient son ame de son père et de sa mère , et le Christ tient son ame naturelle de la teinture de Marie , mais seulement à moitié. Car le limbus de Dieu étoit l'homme ou la sémeaoe masculine ; dans ce limbtts fut la chasto ( 240 ) c": ^2,. vîergede Dieu ou soPHiEdans le ternaire saint; el dans le ternaire saint latrinité , la plénitude entière delà divinité. L'esprit saint fut le maître arcbilecte.
282. Ici nous trouvons clairement ce que leCbnst a dit de nous hommes, à son père céleste : Vois : ces hommes sont à toi , et tu me Us a donnés (Jean 17 : V. 6 , 24 ), et Je désire qu'ils soient où je suis afuiquHls f^oient ma gloire. Lorsque le verbe ou le cœur de Dieu entra dans le ternaire saint , alors il devint fils du père et aussi son serviteur comme dit Isaie , et comme le rapportent les pseaumes.Car il s'est marié à Télément , et a eu la forme de serviteur , mais la vertu qui entra dans Télément étoit son fils. Alors il prit notre ame à soi, et cela non pas simplement comme frère , car le limbus de Dieu étoit l'homme dans la céleste teinture ; et ce même fds fut notre souverain; en effet tout l'univers est dans cette même puissance, et celle même puissance netoiera l'aire de ce monde. Ainsi nous sommes ses serviteurs et aussi ses frères. Nous sommes ses frères par sa mère , mais SCS serviteurs par son père. Et avant la chute nous étions ceux du père, aussi bien que jusqu'à son incarnation, quoique nous fussions dans la parole de la promesse, dans laquelle les croyans entrent en Dieu. 83. Ainsi il est un roi éternellement établi sur la maison de Jacob , et sou règne n'a point de fin 5 il a le trône de son père David , car ce monde est devenu sa propriété : il est entré dans ce monde et en a pris possession. Il est à la fois dans le saint ternaire , dans la Irinilé , et dans ce monde. Il a le vaa
3en main , comme dit Jean Baptiste ; le jugement lui appartient,cedont les démons tremblent.Il a le trône de David d'après les plans de Dieu ; car David étoit son type, et avoir la promesse. Or, Dieu le plaça, dans la promesse, sur le trône. Car Je sceptre de son règne ou de David étoit le sceptre des crojans qui regardoient Dieu comme étant leur roi. Pareillemenl aussi le rè^^ne extérieur apparfenoit à David ; etc'est de celte manière que Christ étoit un roi dans' le ternaire saint , et qu'en même tems ce monde étoit également sa propriété. Du précieux nom Immanuel, Rf. Ainsi nous pouvons réellement dire : Imma* nuely Dieu avec nous ; Dieu en nous. Dans le langage de la nature il retentit merveilleusement ; mai» nos langues de ce monde ne font que balbutier sur cela, et nous ne pouvons pas le nommer selon notre intelligence. [ royez ma note dans r^urore naissante , ch. 8 : v. 78. ] Car m est le cœur de Dieu dans le ternaire saint , attendu qu'il est concentré, comme tu le comprends dans la compression de la parole ; ma est son entrée dans l'humanité , dans l'ame : car cette parole ou syU labe perce hors du cœur; et nous comprenons qu'il a compacté le cœur ou la puissance du père dans l'ame , et qu'il s'élève en haut avec la parole nu , ce qui signifie son ascension au ciel, quant à l'ame. El est le nom du grand ange qui triomphe avec l'ame au-dessus du cîel , nonn. ,6 ^U ( 24^ ) CH. *2' seulement dans le ciel , mais aussî dans U Trinité.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
180. One cannot say that Mary was born of a sterile body although the body of Anne had been sterile, which comes from the designs of God. As they had been pious people, fearing God, by this means their tincture had not been soiled. Seeing that they were to beget her whom the lord would highly bless, God knew well how to render her fecund in his time, and that in old age, when the ardour belonging to the elements of this world was extinguished, as one sees it in Sarah, wife of Abraham. 81. For if the soul dwells in the fear of God, then the tincture in which the soul rises is pure also, although it be not freed from the sin of inheritance. Thus nevertheless Mary is really begotten of Joachim, and holds her soul from her father and from her mother, and the Christ holds his natural soul from the tincture of Mary, but only by half. For the limbus of God was the man or the masculine seed; in this limbus was the chaste ( 240 ) c": ^2,. virgin of God or SOPHIA in the holy ternary; and in the holy ternary the trinity, the entire plenitude of the divinity. The holy spirit was the master architect.
282. Here we find clearly what the Christ said of us men, to his celestial father: See: these men are thine, and thou hast given them to me ( John 17 : V. 6 , 24 ), and I desire that they be where I am so that they may see my glory. When the word or the heart of God entered into the holy ternary, then he became son of the father and also his servant as says Isaiah, and as the psalms report. For he married himself to the element, and had the form of servant, but the virtue which entered into the element was his son. Then he took our soul to himself, and that not simply as brother, for the limbus of God was the man in the celestial tincture; and this same son was our sovereign; in effect all the universe is in this same power, and this same power will cleanse the threshing-floor of this world. Thus we are his servants and also his brothers. We are his brothers by his mother, but his servants by his father. And before the fall we were those of the father, as well as until his incarnation, although we were in the word of the promise, in which the believers enter into God. 83. Thus he is a king eternally established over the house of Jacob, and his reign has no end 5 he has the throne of his father David, for this world is become his property: he is entered into this world and has taken possession of it. He is at once in the holy ternary, in the trinity, and in this world. He has the fan
3in hand, as says John Baptist; the judgment belongs to him, whereat the demons tremble. He has the throne of David according to the plans of God; for David was his type, and had the promise. Now, God placed him, in the promise, upon the throne. For the sceptre of his reign or of David was the sceptre of the believers who regarded God as being their king. Likewise also the exterior reign belonged to David; and it is in this manner that Christ was a king in the holy ternary, and that at the same time this world was equally his property. Of the precious name Immanuel, Rf. Thus we can really say: Immanuel, God with us; God in us. In the language of nature it resounds marvellously; but our tongues of this world do but stammer upon that, and we cannot name it according to our intelligence. [ see my note in the Aurora nascent, ch. 8 : v. 78. ] For im is the heart of God in the holy ternary, seeing that it is concentrated, as thou comprehendest it in the compression of the word; ma is his entrance into the humanity, into the soul: for this word or syllable pierces out of the heart; and we comprehend that he has compacted the heart or the power of the father into the soul, and that he rises on high with the word nu, which signifies his ascension to heaven, as to the soul. El is the name of the great angel who triumphs with the soul above heaven, nonn. ,6 ^U ( 24^ ) CH. *2' ly in heaven, but also in the Trinity.
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
Saint-Martin's French rendering of Boehme's 'Von den drei Principien göttlichen Wesens'. The same work stands in this estate in English as boehme:2. The title page also advertises 'L'Aurore naissante, du même Auteur' from the same booksellers — Saint-Martin's translation of the Aurora, whose English counterpart the estate holds as boehme:1. Reading the two versions against each other shows what a Martinist made of a German shoemaker's theosophy.
→ boehme:2
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.