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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.
192. Comme nous avons démoniré le vrai Christ, qui ici est Dieu et homme dans une personne indivisible , nous voulons aussi montrer maintenant ce qu'il est particulièrement comme homme, selon le royaume de ce monde ; car on ne peut, pas décrire suffisamment les grandes merveilles , elles sont toujours de plus en plus immenses. Eu effet il nous faudroit avoir pour cela une langue d'ange et aussi en outre une langue terrestre. Or nous n'en n'avons qu'une terrestre ; nous voulons toutefois écrire d'après une affection angélique , et parler des grandes merveilles de Dieu , avec celle langue terrestre. 93. Considérons son baptême , et ensuite sa tentation aussitôt après son baptême ; alors nous trouverons notre nouvelle régénération , et en outre dans quel règne nous sommes emprisonnés. Or nous nous réjouissons hautement dans celte connoissance de ce que Dieu est devenu homme; mais si nous voulons concevoir ceci , nous devons d'abord établir le baptême du Christ , et ensuite la lentaliou ; tel est le véritable ordre. jDu baptême du Christ^ sur la terre ^ dans le Jourdain^ 94. Nous savons que, par la chute d'Adam ,nous sommes tombés dans la colère de Dieu , en ce que l'esprit ou l'ame d'Adam s'est détournée du cœur de Dieu , vers l'esprit de ce monde ; là aussitôt la sainte et céleste image s'éteignit , et la colère tint la pauvre amo enfermée dans les ténèbres : car là aussitôt le démon £t son entrée et sa demeure danf ( 246 ) en. 22» la colère de Tame de riioinnie, et si le briseur de serpent n'étoit pas entré aussitôt dans la limite de séparation , dans le centre de la lumière de la vie , alors la colère nous auroit engloutis, et nous serions demeurés les éternels compagnons de tous les démons.
295. Mais quand le briseur de serpent fut entré ainsi dans le milieu , quoique Qon pas dans Thumanité , mais dans le centre de la lumière de la vie , alors les pauvres âmes prisonnières qui se sont retournées vers Dieu y ont été ainsi liées de nouveau dans le centre , à la divinité , jusqu'à ce que le héros vint daus l'humanité ; là il a pris de nouveau rbomme entier dans sa conception et dans son humanité, et nous voyons ceci clairement dans son baptême : car il n'y avoit là qu'une seule personne qui étoit Dieu et homme i, il avoit le corps céleste et aussi le terrestre. 96. Or le baptême n'étoit pas préparé et institué pour le corps terrestre et corruptible qui appartient à la terre , ni par rapport au céleste qui étoit pur et sans tache ; mais par rapport à la pauvre anie , puisque l'homme céleste en Christ avoit reçu dans le corps de Marie, dans son homme céleste, notre ame naturelle , et ainsi le terrestre étoit suspendu à l'ame : alors Dieu ou la trinité sainte a pris, parla main de l'homme, l'eau de l'éternelie vie dans lo pur élément , et a trempé l'ame dedans, comme je pourrois dire, ou bien baptisée. 97. Vois, toi , ame chérie, tu étois sortie de Dieu, et son amour t'a repris de nouveau , et t'a «n. 22. ( 247 )
3liée à «on fil par la promesse. Alors vint l'accomplissement de la promesse, et il le revêtit d'un nouveau corps. Mais ici tu ne pouvois recevoir aucune autre ame ; car , indépendamment de cela ton ame étoit de l'éternité. Or , de mpme que l'esprit saint a obombré et imprégné Marie ; dd même l'eau de la matrice céleste qui tient son commencement de la trinité, a obombré et imprégné dans le baptême du Christ (et de |ous \e& chrétiens baptisés), l'ame du Christ(et de tpus les (chrétiens) par le baptême dans le Jourdain ; et ainsi i'eau terrestre de l'extra - génération a été renouvelée' dans l'ame et l'a purifiée , pour qu'elle fijt en soi, dans le nouveau corps, un pur an^e qui pût eu 'soi mangpr du fruit du ciel j et telle est la jcâuse du baptême. . . ■ • O ! homme , pense à toi, 98. Si donc la pauvre ame se baigne ainsi dan» l'eau de l'élernelle vie , de l'élément pur , qui est dans le ternaire saint , en sorte que non-seulement elle en jouisse à l'extérieur , mais même qu'elle eu» soit remplie, comme l'esprit saint a rempIL Maiidl dans le ternaire saint ; alors elle s'incline , enten-* dez qu'elle se porte réellement vers Dieu, et &ck Dieu , comme une créature nouvellement née, et à moitié lavée ; mais en arrière elle es* encore fortement liée à la colère des ténèbres,dans le règne de ce monde , de façon qu'elle ne peut pas ainsi être entièrement dégagée , à moins qu'elle n'aille C 248 ) CH. 22. dans la mort , et qu'elle ne brise tout-à-fait le royaume de ce inoude. De la tentation du Christ.
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.
192. As we have demonstrated the true Christ, who here is God and man in one indivisible person, we will also show now what he is particularly as man, according to the kingdom of this world; for one cannot describe sufficiently the great marvels, they are always more and more immense. In effect we should need for that an angelic tongue and also besides a terrestrial tongue. Now we have but a terrestrial one; we will however write according to an angelic affection, and speak of the great marvels of God, with this terrestrial tongue. 93. Let us consider his baptism, and then his temptation immediately after his baptism; then we shall find our new regeneration, and besides in what reign we are imprisoned. Now we rejoice highly in this knowledge that God became man; but if we will conceive this, we must first establish the baptism of Christ, and then the temptation; such is the true order. Of the baptism of Christ, upon the earth, in the Jordan, 94. We know that, by the fall of Adam, we are fallen into the anger of God, in that the spirit or the soul of Adam turned away from the heart of God, toward the spirit of this world; there at once the holy and celestial image was extinguished, and the anger held the poor soul shut up in the darkness: for there at once the demon made his entrance and his dwelling in ( 246 ) en. 22» the anger of the soul of man, and if the bruiser of the serpent had not entered at once into the limit of separation, into the centre of the light of life, then the anger would have swallowed us up, and we should have remained the eternal companions of all the demons.
295. But when the bruiser of the serpent was thus entered into the midst, although not into the humanity, but into the centre of the light of life, then the poor imprisoned souls which have turned back toward God have been thus bound anew in the centre, to the divinity, until the hero came into the humanity; there he took anew the entire man into his conception and into his humanity, and we see this clearly in his baptism: for there was there but one single person who was God and man; he had the celestial body and also the terrestrial. 96. Now the baptism was not prepared and instituted for the terrestrial and corruptible body which belongs to the earth, nor in respect of the celestial which was pure and without stain; but in respect of the poor soul, since the celestial man in Christ had received in the body of Mary, in his celestial man, our natural soul, and thus the terrestrial was suspended to the soul: then God or the holy trinity took, by the hand of man, the water of eternal life in the pure element, and dipped the soul therein, as I might say, or rather baptised it. 97. See, thou, cherished soul, thou wast gone out of God, and his love has taken thee back anew, and has «n. 22. ( 247 )
3bound thee to his thread by the promise. Then came the accomplishment of the promise, and he clothed thee with a new body. But here thou couldst receive no other soul; for, independently of that thy soul was of eternity. Now, just as the holy spirit overshadowed and impregnated Mary; likewise the water of the celestial matrix which holds its commencement from the trinity, has overshadowed and impregnated in the baptism of Christ ( and of all the baptised christians ), the soul of Christ ( and of all the christians ) by the baptism in the Jordan; and thus the terrestrial water of the extra-generation has been renewed in the soul and has purified it, so that it might be in itself, in the new body, a pure angel which might in itself eat of the fruit of heaven; and such is the cause of the baptism. O! man, think of thyself, 98. If then the poor soul bathes itself thus in the water of eternal life, of the pure element, which is in the holy ternary, so that not only it enjoys it exteriorly, but even that it be filled with it, as the holy spirit filled Mary in the holy ternary; then it inclines itself, understand that it bears itself really toward God, and of God, like a creature newly born, and half washed; but behind it is still strongly bound to the anger of the darkness, in the reign of this world, so that it cannot thus be entirely disengaged, unless it go C 248 ) CH. 22. into death, and unless it break quite the kingdom of this world. Of the temptation of Christ.
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.