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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.
1an moment où la terre est devenue maléricîle , tout a été engendré d'une seule essence ; et il n'y a eu seulement qu'une séparation d'une chose d'avec l'autre. C'est pourquoi, il y a dans chacune une grande ardeur de l'une pour l'autre , comme vous en avez un exemple dans la reproduction ,en raison de laquelle il y a eu aussi une séparation ; car vous voyez qu'il y a un mâle et une femelle, et que l'un désire ardemment la copulation avec l'autre pour se multiplier ; cela est un grand secret. Vois , lorsque le créateur a séparé la matrice parle fiât, alors il a séparé dans la matrice la cinquième forme d'avec Vaquasier. Car la cinquième forme est céleste et impérissable , tant que dure le royaume de ce monde , et que la racine de la cinquième forme tient au paradis. Je veux établir ceci plus intelligiblement en faveur de celui qui est simple , et qui le désire. 4i. Vois , ainsi qu'il a été dit souvent , lorsque dans le fiat> dans la matrice angoisseuse de la ténébreuse, astringence , le feu est sorti dans la roue tournante, dans l'enflammeuient, et que dans le feu est sortie la luniière du soleil et de toutes les étoiles , alors dans la matrice aslringentequi ,par la lumière étoit devenue atténuée, humble et matétérielle jusqu'au déi rô de l'eau , s'est él«vée la très bienfaisante source de l'amour , de façon qu'une forme chérit ardemment l'autre , à cause de la douceur de la lumière , qui étoit parvenue dans toutes les formes. Or , cette douceur étoit un nouvel enfant qui n'étoit point dans l'angoisse, dans l§ ténébreuse Cfl. 8. ( "I )
2origine , et cet enfant étoit dans le paradis. Mais comme il nerésidoit point dans la matrice , ou dans les essences élémentaires , la matrice de l'astringence ne pouvoit le saisir ; mais elle s'abandonna fortement et ardemment , à cause du feu et de Ta-» mertume , à la grande volonté d'atteindre cette aimable source d'amour, et ne put pas cependant la saisir parce qu'elle étoit paradisiaque , et ain^i l'astringence est encore dans une graude ardeur, et elle engendre l'eau. 42. Mais Dieu a séparé le feu , c'est-à-dire , la quintessence, ou la cinquième forme d'avec l'eau ; il en a fait les étoiles , et le paradis est caché dans la matrice. Or , maintenant, la mère de l'eau désire avec ardeur la mère du feu , et cherche l'enfant de l'amour jet la mère du feu le cherche danslaiûèra de l'eau , c'est-à-dire , là où il est engendré, et il y a en elles une vive ardeur de l'une envers l'autre^ pour la copulation. 43. Alors Dieu dit : Que les divers animaux soient produits^ choftun selon son espèce. Là , de chaque espèce d'essence, est provenu le mâle et sa lemelle. Ainsi l'esprit des étoiles , ou l'esprit dans la forme de feu , s'est mêlé par son désir avec l'aquatique , et d'une seule essence sont sortis deux sexes , l'un selon le limbus en forme ignée, l'autre selon Vaquasier en forme aquatique 5 cependant tellement !mêlés qu'ils n'étoient que comme un seul corps. Ainsi le mâle fut qualifié selon le limbus , ou la forme du feu 9 et la femelle scion Vaquasier^ ou la forme aqualique. i' ( "* ) es. 8.
344. Ainsi il y a nn ardent désir dans les créatures. 1^ esprit du mâle cherche le cher enfant dans la feweile, et la femelle le cherche dans le mâle. Car, vu 1 imbécillité du corps la créature non - raisonnable «e sau pas ce qu'elle fait ; sans cela , son corps ne se «ouveroa pas siardemment pour la propagation;ello ne connoit rien non plus à l'engrossemen t. Seule- »ent , son esprit est ainsi allumé par l'enfant de 1 amour/de façon qu'il cherche l'amour qui est vraittent le paradis , et ne peut l'atteindre , mais il ne lait qu une semence, dans laquelle il y a denouveau un centre pour la génération j et telle est l'origine de deux sexes et de leur propagation. Mais ils ne peuvent atteindre l'enfant paradisiaque jseulement. Ils éprouvent une véhémente ardeur , et ainsi la propagation va avec une grande passion. 45. Quanlà ce que j'écris ici , comment les étoile» dominent dans tous les animaux et dans toutes les créatures ; que toutes les créatures ont reçu dans la création l'esprit des étoiles , et que tout est encore dans ce mémo régime , le simple ne voudra pas le croire , quoique l'homme insiruit le sache bien. Je e renvoie à l'expérience. Vois : un mâle et une femelle engendrent des petits, et cela, souvent. Ces petits viennent d'un même corps et n'ont pas cependant la même complexion , la même couleur, m la même ««„ , ni la même forme de corps. Tout cec. vient du changement de l'éloile. Car, lorsque Ja semence est semée, le .culpteuren fait une ima^e telle qu'il veut ; toutefois , selon la première esseuœ «lu il ne peut pas changer : mais il lui donne l'espri» cii. 8. ( 123 )
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.
1at the moment when the earth became material, all was begotten of one single essence; and there was only a separation of one thing from another. It is why there is in each a great ardour of the one for the other, as you have an example in the reproduction, by reason of which there was also a separation; for you see that there is a male and a female, and that the one desires ardently the copulation with the other to multiply itself; that is a great secret. See, when the creator separated the matrix by the fiat, then he separated in the matrix the fifth form from the aquasier. For the fifth form is celestial and imperishable, so long as the kingdom of this world lasts, and the root of the fifth form holds to paradise. I will establish this more intelligibly in favour of him who is simple, and who desires it. 4i. See, as has been said often, when in the fiat, in the anguishing matrix of the tenebrous astringency, the fire issued in the turning wheel, in the inflaming, and when in the fire issued the light of the sun and of all the stars, then in the astringent matrix which, by the light, had become attenuated, humble and material to the degree of water, there rose the most beneficent source of love, so that one form cherishes ardently the other, because of the sweetness of the light, which had come into all the forms. Now, that sweetness was a new child which was not in the anguish, in the tenebrous Cfl. 8. ( "I )
2origin, and that child was in paradise. But as it resided not in the matrix, or in the elementary essences, the matrix of the astringency could not seize it; but it abandoned itself strongly and ardently, because of the fire and of the bitterness, to the great will of attaining that lovable source of love, and could nevertheless not seize it because it was paradisiac, and thus the astringency is still in a great ardour, and it begets the water. 42. But God separated the fire, that is to say, the quintessence, or the fifth form from the water; he made of it the stars, and paradise is hidden in the matrix. Now, at present, the mother of the water desires with ardour the mother of the fire, and seeks the child of love; and the mother of the fire seeks it in the mother of the water, that is to say, there where it is begotten, and there is in them a lively ardour of the one towards the other, for the copulation. 43. Then God said: Let the divers animals be produced, each according to its species. There, of each species of essence, proceeded the male and his female. Thus the spirit of the stars, or the spirit in the form of fire, mingled itself by its desire with the aquatic, and of one single essence issued two sexes, the one according to the limbus in igneous form, the other according to the aquasier in aquatic form 5 nevertheless so mingled that they were but as one single body. Thus the male was qualified according to the limbus, or the form of the fire 9 and the female according to the aquasier, or the aquatic form. i' ( "* ) es. 8.
344. Thus there is an ardent desire in the creatures. 1The spirit of the male seeks the dear child in the female, and the female seeks it in the male. For, given 1the imbecility of the body the non-reasonable creature knows not what it does; without that, its body would not move so ardently for the propagation; it knows nothing either of the impregnation. Only, its spirit is thus kindled by the child of 1love, so that it seeks the love which is truly paradise, and cannot attain it, but it makes only a seed, wherein there is anew a centre for the generation; and such is the origin of two sexes and of their propagation. But they cannot attain the paradisiac child, only they experience a vehement ardour, and thus the propagation goes with a great passion. 45. As for what I write here, how the stars dominate in all the animals and in all the creatures; that all the creatures received in the creation the spirit of the stars, and that all is still in that same régime, the simple will not believe it, although the instructed man knows it well. I refer him to experience. See: a male and a female beget little ones, and that, often. Those little ones come from a same body and have nevertheless not the same complexion, the same colour, nor the same nature, nor the same form of body. All this comes from the change of the star. For, when the seed is sown, the sculptor makes of it an image such as he wills; nevertheless, according to the first essence which he cannot change: but he gives it the spirit cii. 8. ( 123 )
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.