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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.
153 Ici , toi , brebis cbérie , fais altenlîon. Lorsque le Christ est mort , il n'a point rejeté le corps qu'il avoit eu ici , et il ne Ta point livré aux quatre élémens pour le dévorer, comme s'il avoit eu amsi „n corps tout-à-iait étranger. Non, il a seulement rejeté la source de ce monde , laquelle est dans les étoiles et dans les quatre élémens, et il s'est revêtu de ce qui est incorruptible , a6n que cela fut un corps qui vécût en Dieu dans la puissance divine , et non pas dans l'esprit de ce monde , comme Saint-Paul le dit du jugement dernier : Que ce qui est incorruptible ou le nouvel homme, attirera ce qui est corruptible , et engloutira ce qui est corruptible,de façon que la mort sera livrée à la dension , et qu'on dira : Mort , où est ton aiguillon ? Et a l'enfer : Enfer , où est ta victoire? 54 Tu dois savoir que le Christ lorsqu il étoit encore sur la terre , avoii et portoit , ainsi que nous tous qui sommes régénérés en lui , la cha.r et le sang célesie dans le terrestre , el que nous les portons aussi dans le nouvel homme, dans le corps du Christ. 55. Lors donc que nous mourons dans le vieux corps terrestre , alors nous vivons dans le nouveau corps, dans le corps de Jésus-Christ. Nous poussons de la mort , en lui ; notre floraison est notre paradis, où nos essences poussent en Dieu.Le terrestre est absorbé dans la mort , et nous nous revêtons de notrç seigneur Jésus.Christ , non-seulement dans la. foi. m dans l'esprit ; mais dans la v.r/« du corps , dans notre chair et notre sang célestes. Ainsi c*. i5. ( 325 ) nous vivons pour Dieu le père , dans son fils Christ ; et l'esprit saint confirme toutes nos œuvres : car tout ce que nous ferons alors y c'est Dieu qui le fera en nous.
256. Ainsi il y aura un tabernacle de Dieu parmi les hommes, et le corps du Christ sera notre temple, où nous connoîfrous et verrons sans voile les grandes merveilles de Dieu , où nous nous en entretiendrons et où nous nous en réjouirons éternellement 5 et c'est là le temple et la nouvelle Jérusalem , dont a écrit le prophète Ezéchiel. 57. Et ici , je te dis un secret : de même que tout ce dont Adam a été coupable , a dû , dans ca monde , se trouver aussi sur le corps du Christ , et être vu dans ce monde; de même tu verras encore ce temple dans les Ijs , dans les merveilles , avant le tems où l'incorruptible attirera entièrement le corruptihle. Là la colère sera en opposition aux lys , jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit réconciliée dans l'amour , et que l'instigateur devienne un objet de dérision , ainsi que cela lui arriva à la mort du Christ. Les Juifs conservent encore de l'espérance sur cet article ; mais leur sceptre est brisé , et la vie est dans la génération de Jésus-Christ. Néanmoins ils viennent des extrémités du monde ; ils repassent de Jéricho dans la sainte Jérusalem , et ils mangent avec l'agneau : c'est là une merveille. Mais l'instigateur est prisonnier ; ainsi nous vous parlons Iç langage des merveilles 5 el maintenant nous ne serons point entendus^ jusqu'à ce que l'instigateur soit délruitf car notre vie revient, el|elleest dans la vallée de Josaphat. (326) CH. 2S, Zt*autre porte des souffrances du Christ.
358. Il nous est clairement démontré pourquoi Phomme Christ devoit se laisser 'railler , mépriser , flageller , couronner et crucifier ; de même que pourquoi il devoit laisser élever la voix contre lui , comme contre un possédé du démon , et pourquoi il fut si contredit par les prudens et les sages , ainsi que pourquoi il n'y eut que les gens simples qui s'attachèrent à lui, et seulement aussi quelques opulens de ce monde. Quoiqu'il n'y ait pas à espérer que nous plaisions à tout le monde , cependant ce n'est point notre parole que nous disons \ mais nous exprimons dans nptre connoissance et par l'impulsion de l'esprit , ce qui nous est montré en Dieu ; c'est pourquoi entends ceci exactement. 59. Vois : l'innocent homme Christ fut substitué ^ notre place dans la colère du père; il ne devoit pas seulement réconcilier tout ce dont Adam avoit été coupable e« passant du paradis dans ce monde , ce qui l'avoit rendu un objet de dérision devant pieu et tous les hommes ; mais aussi toute la corrup* lion qui sourça depuis , et en outre toute celle qui provient de nous continuellement. 60. Nous posons ceci devant tes yeux , dans la connoissance divine et en sincérité , non pas que pous veuillions dédaigner personne , et nous glorifier ; nous aimerions mieux être bannis de ce monde , que de nous conduire ainsi par orgueil et pour notre propre réout^tion ^ ce ^ui Qe serait ^u'ime isxyL f H. ^5. ( 327 ) famie 5 et l'esprit de connoissance se retîreroit. Tu dois faire attention à cela. Nous voulons donc écrire pour nous dans notre science , et recommander à Dieu le résultat.
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.
153 Here, thou, cherished sheep, give attention. When the Christ died, he did not reject the body that he had had here, and he did not deliver it to the four elements to devour it, as if he had had thus a body altogether strange. No, he only rejected the source of this world, which is in the stars and in the four elements, and he clothed himself with what is incorruptible, in ord6er that it might be a body which should live in God in the divine power, and not in the spirit of this world, as Saint-Paul says it of the last judgment: That what is incorruptible or the new man, shall attract what is corruptible, and shall swallow up what is corruptible, so that the death shall be delivered to derision, and one shall say: Death, where is thy sting? And to hell: Hell, where is thy victory? 54 Thou must know that the Christ when he was still upon the earth, had and bore, as well as all of us who are regenerated in him, the celestial flesh and blood in the terrestrial, and that we bear them also in the new man, in the body of the Christ. 55. When then we die in the old terrestrial body, then we live in the new body, in the body of Jesus-Christ. We push out of the death, in him; our flowering is our paradise, where our essences push in God. The terrestrial is absorbed in the death, and we clothe ourselves with our lord Jesus-Christ, not only in the faith, nor in the spirit; but in the virtue of the body, in our celestial flesh and blood. Thus c*. i5. ( 325 ) we live for God the father, in his son Christ; and the holy spirit confirms all our works: for all that we shall do then, it is God who shall do it in us.
256. Thus there shall be a tabernacle of God among men, and the body of the Christ shall be our temple, where we shall know and see without veil the great marvels of God, where we shall converse of them and where we shall rejoice in them eternally 5 and it is there the temple and the new Jerusalem, whereof the prophet Ezekiel has written. 57. And here, I tell thee a secret: even as all that whereof Adam has been guilty, has had, in this world, to be found also upon the body of the Christ, and to be seen in this world; even so thou shalt see still this temple in the lilies, in the marvels, before the time when the incorruptible shall entirely attract the corruptible. There the anger shall be in opposition to the lilies, until she be reconciled in the love, and until the instigator become an object of derision, according as that happened to him at the death of the Christ. The Jews preserve still hope upon this article; but their sceptre is broken, and the life is in the generation of Jesus-Christ. Nevertheless they come from the extremities of the world; they pass back from Jericho into the holy Jerusalem, and they eat with the lamb: it is there a marvel. But the instigator is prisoner; thus we speak you the language of the marvels 5 and now we shall not be understood, until the instigator be destroyed, for our life returns, and it is in the valley of Jehoshaphat. (326) CH. 2S, The other gate of the sufferings of the Christ.
358. It is clearly demonstrated to us why the man Christ was to let himself be mocked, despised, scourged, crowned and crucified; even as why he was to let the voice be raised against him, as against one possessed of the demon, and why he was so contradicted by the prudent and the wise, as well as why there were only the simple people who attached themselves to him, and only also some opulent ones of this world. Although there is not to be hoped that we please all the world, nevertheless it is not our word that we say; but we express in our knowledge and by the impulsion of the spirit, what is shown us in God; it is why hear this exactly. 59. See: the innocent man Christ was substituted in our place in the anger of the father; he was not only to reconcile all that whereof Adam had been guilty in passing from the paradise into this world, which had rendered him an object of derision before God and all men; but also all the corruption which sourced since, and besides all that which comes of us continually. 60. We lay this before thy eyes, in the divine knowledge and in sincerity, not that we would disdain any one, and glorify ourselves; we should rather like to be banished from this world, than to conduct ourselves thus by pride and for our own reputation, which would be but an in- f H. ^5. ( 327 ) famy 5 and the spirit of knowledge would withdraw itself. Thou must give attention to that. We will then write for ourselves in our science, and recommend to God the result.
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.