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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.
180. Ainsi lu ne dois pas croire que l'ame du Christ se soit portée loin du corps ; car d'ailleurs tous les trois principes étoient sur la croix. Pourquoi doue pas aussi dans le tombeau? Au moment où le Christ sépara de lui le royaume de ce monde , l'ame du Christ pénétra dans la mort et dans la colère de Dieu. Dans ce même moment la colère fut reconciliée dans l'amour , dans la lumière , et devint paradis ; les démons eux-mêmes avec toutes les âmes impies furent emprisonnés daus la colère ; et aussitôt la vie poussa au travers de la mort : alors la mort fut brisée, et elle fut livrée à la dérision. C'est une mort pour les impies qui sont restés dans la colère j c'est une vie pour les saints en Christ. 81. Ainsi l'ame du Christ a'élé présente avec son corps , quarante heures dans le tombeau , dans le père. Car le corps céleste n'étoit pas mort , mais le terrestre. L'ame croissoit dans le corps céleste au travers de la mort,et elle resta quarante heures dans le repos. C'étcient là les quarante heures qu'Adam avoit passées dans le sommeil lorsque sa femme fut extraite de lui. C'étoient aussi les quarante jours de la tentation [ (V Israël pendant le séjour '\ de Moïse sur la montagne , pour voir s'il lui seroit possible de vivre di^ns le royaume céleste , dans la puissance du père. Mais comoue cela fut trouvé impossible ; en. 25. ( 33^ j alors le peuple s'écarla aussitôt des lois du père Cou de la nature); ils s'érigèrent pour Dieu un veau de leur façon et Moïse brisa les tables de la loi.
282, Dieu parla en outre , dans le feu à Israël , afin qu Ils vissent qu'il n'étoit pas possible d'entrer dans la terre pro«iise paradisiaque jusqu'à ce que vint le vra. Josue ou Jésus , q„i les introduisit par la mort dans la vie. Pense à cela, récrirai clairement dans «n autre livre sur les tables de Moïse ; sonde cela , tu trouveras là tous \es principes de ce que Moïse a <lit eJ opéré. Du ChriU ressuscitant du tombeau. 83 De même qu'Adam é.oit passé de la claire lumière de Dieu dans le royaume ténébreux de ce inonde , et que l'ame d'Adam resia croissante dans ecorpsenlre les de.ix principes ténébreux, ou entre la mort et l'enfer ; de même aussi le Christ voulut dans son corps croissant , ressusciter de la mort à «■nu.l ; et changer la nuit par son saint corps en un clair ,our éternel , où il ne vînt plus désormais de nuit , mais où brillât la lumière de Dieu le père et de l'agneau. '^ 84. Et lu ne dois pas croire que l'ame du Christ ait , pendant ces quarante heures, été dans un autre endroit , que dans le père même , et dans son corp, ■ là elle a poussé en une grande douceur , au-dessus de la persécution ; e. de même qu'une rose ou une belle fleur pousse de la (erre ; de même aussi nos anies dans notre repos croi«ent dans le corps de ^^ 22 ( 338 ) tn, a5. Jéâus-Chiisl jusqu'au dernier jugement. A la destruclion de ce monde la nouvel!e créature fleurira de l'ancienne , et en même tems Pâme croîtra da<»s un doux repos , dans le saint élément , dans le corps du Christ jusqu'à ce que nos quarante heures soient complètes aussi , et pas une heure de plus au delà du tems marqué. C'est ainsi que le corpa du Christ dans la puissance du père est ressuscité , et s^est élevé par le moyen de l'ame , et a en soi l'éternelle lumière de la trini té.
383. Il n'étoit pas nécessaire de rouler la pierre , si ce n'est pour convaincre les aveugles juifs , pour qu'ils vissent malgré eux, que toutes leurs œuvres ïi'étoieot que folies , lorsqu'ils vouloient retenir Dieu, et aussi par rapport à la foible raison des disciples , afin qu'ils vissent qu'il étoit vraiment res- •uscité , car ils pouvoient ainsi entrer dans le tombeau et voir par eux-mêmes. 86. Là aussi les anges leur apparurent , et les consolèrent. C'est ainsi que le Christ veut consoler les siens, qui sont dans la tristesse , et qui seront affligés à cause de lui. Oui , il est près d'eux , comme auprès de Marie Magdelaine et des deux disciples d'Ëmmaiis. ^7. Tu dois savoir qu'aucun rocher, ni aucune pierre ne retint , ni ne pouvoil retenir îe corps du Christ j il pénètre toute chose, et cependant n'en brise aucune. Il embrasse le monde , et le monde ne l'embrasse point. Il ne souffre de tourment d'aucune chose. En lui est toute la plénitude 4e la divinité , et il n'est cependant enfermé par ^^' ^^' ( 339 ) rien. Dans notre forme humaine il paroît une créature delà même grandeur que notre corps, et cependant son corps n'a aucune limite; il elt l'universel prince-trône de tout le principe S8, Lorsqu'il étoit sur la terre, dans Phomme teiTestre , alors son homme terrestre étoit mesurable, comme l'est notre corps , mais l'homme inéneur ne i'étoit pas : car dans la résurrection , dans le corps de Jésus-Cbrist, nous sommes aussi incommensurables , mais visibles et saisissables dans la chair et le sang célestes , comme le prince de la vie même. Nous pouvons , dans la figure céleste, être grands et petits 5 et cependant rien ne se brisera en ' nous rijous n'avons besoin d'aucune précaution.
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. Thus thou must not believe that the soul of the Christ bore itself far from the body; for besides all the three principles were upon the cross. Why then not also in the tomb? At the moment when the Christ separated from him the kingdom of this world, the soul of the Christ penetrated into the death and into the anger of God. In this same moment the anger was reconciled in the love, in the light, and became paradise; the demons themselves with all the impious souls were imprisoned in the anger; and at once the life pushed through the death: then the death was broken, and it was delivered to derision. It is a death for the impious who have remained in the anger; it is a life for the saints in Christ. 81. Thus the soul of the Christ has been present with his body, forty hours in the tomb, in the father. For the celestial body was not dead, but the terrestrial. The soul grew in the celestial body through the death, and she remained forty hours in the repose. Those were there the forty hours that Adam had passed in the sleep when his woman was extracted from him. Those were also the forty days of the temptation of Israel during the sojourn of Moses upon the mountain, to see whether it were possible for it to live in the celestial kingdom, in the power of the father. But as that was found impossible; en. 25. ( 33^ j then the people turned aside at once from the laws of the father (or of the nature); they erected for God a calf of their own fashion and Moses broke the tables of the law.
282, God spoke besides, in the fire to Israel, in order that they might see that it was not possible to enter into the paradisiacal promised land until the true Joshua or Jesus came, who introduced them by the death into the life. Think upon that, I will write clearly in another book upon the tables of Moses; sound that, thou wilt find there all the principles of what Moses said and operated. Of the Christ rising again from the tomb. 83 Even as Adam had passed from the clear light of God into the tenebrous kingdom of this world, and as the soul of Adam remained growing in the body between the two tenebrous principles, or between the death and hell; even so also the Christ would in his growing body, rise again from the death to «■nu.l; and change the night by his holy body into a clear eternal day, where night should come no more henceforth, but where the light of God the father and of the lamb should shine. '^ 84. And thou must not believe that the soul of the Christ has, during these forty hours, been in another place, than in the father himself, and in his body: there she has pushed in a great sweetness, above the persecution; and even as a rose or a fair flower pushes out of the earth; even so also our souls in our repose grow in the body of ^^ 22 ( 338 ) tn, a5. Jesus-Christ until the last judgment. At the destruction of this world the new creature shall flower out of the ancient, and at the same time the soul shall grow in a sweet repose, in the holy element, in the body of the Christ until our forty hours be complete also, and not one hour more beyond the time marked. It is thus that the body of the Christ in the power of the father is risen again, and has raised itself by means of the soul, and has in itself the eternal light of the trinity.
383. It was not necessary to roll the stone, if it be not to convince the blind jews, that they might see in spite of themselves, that all their works were but follies, when they would retain God, and also in respect of the feeble reason of the disciples, in order that they might see that he was truly risen again, for they could thus enter into the tomb and see by themselves. 86. There also the angels appeared to them, and consoled them. It is thus that the Christ will console his own, who are in the sadness, and who shall be afflicted because of him. Yes, he is near them, as near Mary Magdalene and the two disciples of Emmaus. ^7. Thou must know that no rock, nor any stone retained, nor could retain the body of the Christ; it penetrates every thing, and nevertheless breaks none. It embraces the world, and the world embraces it not. It suffers torment from no thing. In it is all the plenitude 4of the divinity, and it is nevertheless enclosed by ^^' ^^' ( 339 ) nothing. In our human form it appears a creature of the same greatness as our body, and nevertheless its body has no limit; it is the universal prince-throne of all the principle S8, When he was upon the earth, in the terrestrial man, then his terrestrial man was measurable, as our body is, but the interior man was not: for in the resurrection, in the body of Jesus-Christ, we are also incommensurable, but visible and seizable in the celestial flesh and blood, as the prince of the life himself. We can, in the celestial figure, be great and little 5 and nevertheless nothing shall break in ' us, nor have we need of any precaution.
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.