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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.
1La très effroyable porte des merveilles du péché de Vho mme. 22. Lorsqu'au commencement de ce livre , nous avons écrit de Télernelle génération dans son origine, nous avons aussi décrit Tengendrement des essences 5 et des sept esprits de l'éternelle nature, et là nous avons exposé comment , dans l'éternel engendrement dans la quatrième forme , il J a un engendreraent en croix -f , oii les essences font dans la roue tournante , un engendrement en croix -h, en te qu'elles ne peuvent pas sortir d'ellesmêmes ; eufin, comment V engendrement éternel est ainsi par-tout dans toutes choses , dans l'essence de tous les êtres. 23. Or, nous vous ajoutons maintenant ceci dans notre très pénétrante connoissance actuelle de ce texte , qu'au moment de la victoire sur la mort, lorsque le Christ dut vaincre la mort et détruire l'enfer, et lier le démon , toutes les essences dans toutes les qualités entrèrent en fureur j car cela de- ^"- ^5- ( 5i3 ) voit être ainsi , le Christ devant affranchir l'amc, de toutes les essences. ^4. Or , Tengendrement en croix -}- est le plus an milieu dans les essences ; cependant il est avant le *eu; ilest dans la mort angoisseuse, dans la colère de I enfer. Car le feu sort de l'éclair colérique dans J esprit de soufre ; el dans l'éclair est la lumière La colère fait elle-même l'esprit de soufre , et c'est de Ja que dans la lumière vient l'eau , ainsi que cela a elé exposé. Ainsi donc l'ame de l'homme fut aperçue dans l'éclair comme un espriljelle fut reçue, créée ou engendrée par le fiât ; et elle fut conduite devant soi dans la cinquième forme de l'engendreinent ou dans l'amour, où ensuite elle fut un ange dans la lumière de Dieu. *
225. Mais ce monde avoit été créé comme un prmope dans la quatrième forme, ou comme une exl tra.génératîon,el entre la quatrième et la cinquième forme du paradis , l'élément étant dans \a cinquième forme , et en lui TélerneUe lumière de la divinité ouvrant un autre centre. Or , l'ame s'élant rénéchie en arrière dans la quatrième forme , et j élant entrée, alors elle a rendu furieuses, par rapporta elle, toules les essences qui éloieut dans la quatrième forme. 26. Lors donc que le corps de l'ame fut devenu dans la quatrième forme une masse ou mesch , />«>- venue ^e l'eau avec le mélange des autres formes, alors toutes les essences de la quatrième forme pointèrent sur l'ame : car elle étoit enfermée par ce corps, et elle seroil demeuxée dans une éternelle ( 3i4 ) ^^ *^ prison, si la parole éternelle ne »e fût aussitôt introduite dans le centre de la cinc|uième forme , coaime cela fut manifesté à Adam et à Eve dans le jardin d'Eden. 27. Lorsque le tems fut venu que la parole se fat homme , alors la vie de l'amour vint dans Pâme. Mais lorsque vint le rude combat où la quatrième forme devoil être brisée,alors le corps du Christ fut, ainsi que nous tous dans la quatrième forme , enviTonné de la mort ; alors toutes les formes s'ébranlèrent dans la nature , et devinrent toutes furieuses, ce dont la personne du Christ sua du sang de son corps dans le jardin , quand il cria : Mon père , 8*ii ést possible y que ce calice s'éloigne de moi. Ainsi cria l'homme extérieur ; et l'intérieur dit : Cependant que ce soit ta volonté qui se fasse et non pas la mienne ( entendez celle de l'extérieur ).
328. Comme donc enfin le démon avoit si haute* ment triomphé , et qu'il retenoit l'homme dans un« éternelle prison , il fut alors accordé à l'esprit de ce monde que ceux qui ne vivroient que dans l'esprit de ce monde comme les pharisiens, pussent tous opérer çl meltreen œuvre ce que le démon avoit introduit dans les essences, dans le jardin d'Eden. Alors tout a ëtéréaliséensubstanceou en une œuvre eflective,pour nous servir d'un effroyable exemple, que tout ce que nous introduisons dans l'arae et ce dont nous remplisjons rame avec une entière volonté , prend une Hgure et doit paroître en évidence au jugement de Dieu. u^. Car, 10. lorsqu'Adara passa de la forme angelique dans l'âpreté , et dans la forme du serpent , alors les démons se moquèrent de lui , et ces mêmes railleries dévoient paroître maintenant, en eflTet, sur l'homme extérieur du Christ ; et les sales animaux engraissés par le démon , dévoient beaucoup s'en réjouir. 3o. Et ensuite a^. lorsqu'Adam passa de la forme, et de la source angéliquas dans la quatrième forme, alors toutes les essences colériques tombèrent sur lui, inqimltfièreni en lui , et le tourmentèrent rudement. Mais la parole de Dieu dans la promesse, rai tigea encore cela , quoique l'on doive suffisamment le sentir si on écoute sa saine raison : or , le corps extérieur du Christ fut aussi soumis à cette peine extérieurement lorsqu'il fut flagellé. Car toutes les formes inférieures que l'homme Christ devoit ap- )»orler de l'intérieur par rapport à nous, ( ce dont il sua du sang) , furent aussi à l'extérieur sur son corps comme un signe ; et cela lui arriva aussi extérieurement comme un témoignage que l'homme extérieur n'éioil point étranger dans le monde extérieur , et que c'est dans cette (ipre source qu'il étoit.
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.
1The very frightful gate of the marvels of the sin of the ma n. 22. When at the beginning of this book, we wrote of the eternal generation in its origin, we described also the begetting of the essences 5 and of the seven spirits of the eternal nature, and there we set forth how, in the eternal begetting in the fourth form, there is a begetting in cross -f, where the essences make in the turning wheel, a begetting in cross -h, in that they cannot go out of themselves; finally, how the eternal begetting is thus everywhere in all things, in the essence of all beings. 23. Now, we add you this now in our very penetrating actual knowledge of this text, that at the moment of the victory over the death, when the Christ had to vanquish the death and destroy hell, and bind the demon, all the essences in all the qualities entered into fury; for that mu- ^"- ^5- ( 5i3 ) st be thus, the Christ having to free the soul, from all the essences. ^4. Now, the begetting in cross -}- is the most in the midst in the essences; nevertheless it is before the fire; it is in the anguishing death, in the anger of hell. For the fire goes out of the choleric flash in the spirit of sulphur; and in the flash is the light. The anger makes itself the spirit of sulphur, and it is from thence that in the light comes the water, according as that has been set forth. Thus then the soul of the man was perceived in the flash as a spirit; she was received, created or begotten by the fiat; and she was conducted before herself into the fifth form of the begetting or into the love, where afterwards she was an angel in the light of God. *
225. But this world had been created as a principle in the fourth form, or as an extra-generation, and between the fourth and the fifth form of the paradise, the element being in the fifth form, and in it the eternal light of the divinity opening another centre. Now, the soul having reflected itself backward into the fourth form, and having entered there, then she has rendered furious, in respect of her, all the essences which were in the fourth form. 26. When then the body of the soul was become in the fourth form a mass or mesch, come of the water with the mixture of the other forms, then all the essences of the fourth form pointed upon the soul: for she was enclosed by this body, and she would have remained in an eternal ( 3i4 ) ^^ *^ prison, if the eternal word had not at once introduced itself into the centre of the fifth form, according as that was manifested to Adam and to Eve in the garden of Eden. 27. When the time was come that the word should be made man, then the life of the love came into the soul. But when came the rude combat where the fourth form was to be broken, then the body of the Christ was, as all of us in the fourth form, environed with the death; then all the forms were shaken in the nature, and became all furious, whereof the person of the Christ sweated blood of his body in the garden, when he cried: My father, 8*if it be possible, that this cup remove from me. Thus cried the exterior man; and the interior said: Nevertheless let it be thy will which be done and not mine ( understand that of the exterior ).
328. As then finally the demon had so highly triumphed, and as he held the man in an eternal prison, it was then granted to the spirit of this world that those who should live only in the spirit of this world as the pharisees, might all operate and put in work what the demon had introduced into the essences, in the garden of Eden. Then all has been realised in substance or in an effective work, to serve us as a frightful example, that all that we introduce into the soul and wherewith we fill the soul with an entire will, takes a figure and must appear in evidence at the judgment of God. u^. For, 10. when Adam passed from the angelic form into the harshness, and into the form of the serpent, then the demons mocked at him, and these same railleries were to appear now, in effect, upon the exterior man of the Christ; and the foul animals fattened by the demon, were to rejoice much at it. 3o. And afterwards a^. when Adam passed from the angelic form, and from the angelic source into the fourth form, then all the choleric essences fell upon him, inqualified in him, and tormented him rudely. But the word of God in the promise, rectified that still, although one must sufficiently feel it if one listens to his sane reason: now, the exterior body of the Christ was also submitted to this penalty exteriorly when he was scourged. For all the inferior forms that the man Christ had to bring from the interior in respect of us, ( whereof he sweated blood ), were also exteriorly upon his body as a sign; and that happened to him also exteriorly as a testimony that the exterior man was not a stranger in the exterior world, and that it is in this harsh source that he was.
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.