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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.
1vient en elle , sans pouvoir cepetidant èli être saisie,* alors la joicjdans la volonté qui s'élève, â dé nôui^cflu en soi un centre , et etigèndre dé ïiduveàu de soi une source douce, molle et aimable, une source humble et gracieuse , et qui est immatérielle ; car il ïifc se peut alors rien engendrer de plus délicieux ; c'est pourquoi c'est là la limite de la nature , et c'est le chaud , ou le hartn^ ou comme je dois dire , là barmhertzigkeit miséricorde. Car la nâlUre né cherche et ne désire plus rien ici , ûi aucune autre génération 5 c'est la perfection. 33. Or , dans cette douce source l'eiprit bouilloiir liant qui, dans l'origine de Venjlamnïcment ^ étoit l'esprit amer ou angoisseux, s'élève , maintenant , gracieux , sans agitation , et est l'esprit saint , ou la douce source qui,dans le cenlre,est engendrée de la lumière; c'est la patôle ou le cœur de Dieu. Dans celte demeure est le paradis , et V engendrement est l'éternelle trinité dans laquelle tu dois demeurer , si lu veux être dans le paradis ; il faut qu'elle soit engendrée en toi si tu veux être ènliint de Dieu ; et que ton arae soit en lui , autrement tu ne peux ni contempler le royaume de Dieu , ni en Jouir. 34. C'est pourquoi la ferme foi et la confiance nous ramènent en Dieu , car elle saisit le centre divin pour la génération dans l'esprit saint, sans tèla rien ne sert ; foutes les autres choses qu& l'homme fait ici ne sont que àts essences qui I3 suivent en ombres , et dans lesquelles il restera. Car de même que làdaUâ la divinité sainte, est la géuélatiou qui dans l'origine existe datis la volonté q\ C 140 ) en. 9.
2rajigoîsse pour la lumière 5 de même aussi , toi homme émigré du paradis, tu dois , pour atteindre ia génération , entrer dans la volonté angoisseuse, soupirante et désirante ; alors tu atteins , db nouveau , Je paradis et la lumière de Dieu. 35. Maintenant vois , toi , ame raisonnable , je parle avec toi et non avec le corps ; toi seule me comprends. Dès que la naissance est ainsi continuellement engendrée,dès lors chaque forme a un centra pour la renaissance ; car l'entière essence divine est dans une naissance constante et éternelle mais in. variable comme Pesprit de Phomme , dans qui les pensées s engendrent toujours dans la base affective: el des pensées, la volonté et le désir; et de la volonté et du désir , Pœuvre qui est formée en substance dans la volonté ; alors la boucbe et la main saisissent et emploient ce qui étoil substaniiel dans la volonté. 36. II en est ainsi de l'élernelle génération , où de toute éternité la puissance a été continuellement engendrée, et de la puissance la lumière: or, la Jumiere excite et fait la puissance ; la puissance ainsi que la lumière brillent dans les éternelles ténèbres et rendent la volonté soupirante dans Pesprit éternel , de façon que la volonté engendre les pensées dans les ténèbres i les pensées .n^W;^„, Pattract et le désir ; le désir est Pardeurde la puissance: dans 1 ardeur de la puissance est la bouche qui pro- «once le fiât , et le fiât fait la matrice ou ki suhs. tcuw,. L'esprit qui sort dans la puissance la subdivise, et ne prend pas une essence dans une aulvQ QH. 9. A 141 ;
3essence , mais il la subdivise ; el dans l'essence subdivisée , comme chacune est entière el non brisée , le centre du multipliant se trouve de nouveau dans chaque chose , de la même manière que dans Pesprit de Phomme par Pascension des pensées. Mais maintenant qu'est-ce qui doit être engendré dans ce centre? Principalement , de nouveau , un esprit dans une génération et source semblable à ce qui a été dit ci-dessus ; savoir : une volonté dans l'angoisse , et dans la volonté un désir; or, le désir fait Paltract ; dans la volonté , se lient la pensée ; dans la pensée , la bouche ; et dans la bouche est prononcé de la puissance , le fiât ; le fiât fait la matrice , ou la substance ; Pcsprit la subdivise et la forme d'après la pensée. 37. C'est pourquoi il y a plusieurs familles de créatures ; c'est ainsi qu'il en est de l'éternelle pensée , dans la sagesse de Dieu ; l'esprit a formé chaque famille selon chaque pensée de Péternelle sagesse de Dieu; et le fiât a donné à chacune sa chair selon l'essence de chaque pensée : car , dans la pensée existe la qualité. Telle est la génération et la première naissante de toutes les créatures ; dans cette génération , elles sont encore en essence , . et c'est de celte manière de sortir de Péternelle pensée , qui est la sagesse de Dieu , qu'elles ont été tirées de la matrice par le fiât. Mais puisqu'elles «ont provenues des ténèbres de l'extra - génération , du centre , qui , dans le tems,a été engendré en volonté , alors elles ne sont pas éternelles , mais pas- ( ^^ ^J en. gi saghres comme une pensée ; et qu oiqu'eJles soient matérielles , cependant chaque source prend la sienne en soi , et la réduit de nouveau à riencomm» elle étoit au commencement.
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.
1comes into it, without being able nevertheless to be seized by it; then the joy in the will which rises has anew in itself a centre, and begets anew of itself a source sweet, soft and lovable, a source humble and gracious, and which is immaterial; for there can then nothing more delicious be begotten; it is why it is there the limit of nature, and it is the warm, or the harm, or as I must say, the barmhertzigkeit, mercy. For nature seeks and desires nothing more here, nor any other generation 5 it is perfection. 33. Now, in that sweet source the boiling spirit which, in the origin of the inflaming, was the bitter or anguishing spirit, rises, now, gracious, without agitation, and is the holy spirit, or the sweet source which, in the centre, is begotten of the light; it is the word or the heart of God. In that dwelling is paradise, and the begetting is the eternal trinity wherein thou must dwell, if thou wilt be in paradise; it must be begotten in thee if thou wilt be child of God; and thy soul be in him, otherwise thou canst neither contemplate the kingdom of God nor enjoy it. 34. It is why firm faith and confidence bring us back into God, for it seizes the divine centre for the generation in the holy spirit; without that nothing serves; all the other things which man does here are but essences which I3follow him in shadows, and wherein he shall remain. For even as there in the holy divinity is the generation which in the origin exists in the will C 140 ) en. 9.
2and the anguish for the light 5 even so also, thou man emigrated from paradise, thou must, to attain the generation, enter into the anguishing, sighing and desiring will; then thou attainest anew paradise and the light of God. 35. Now see, thou, reasonable soul, I speak with thee and not with the body; thou alone comprehendest me. So soon as the birth is thus continually begotten, from then each form has a centre for the rebirth; for the entire divine essence is in a constant and eternal birth but invariable like the spirit of man, in whom the thoughts beget themselves always in the affective base: and of the thoughts, the will and the desire; and of the will and the desire, the work which is formed in substance in the will; then the mouth and the hand seize and employ what was substantial in the will. 36. It is so with the eternal generation, where from all eternity the power has been continually begotten, and of the power the light: now, the light excites and makes the power; the power as well as the light shine in the eternal darknesses and render the will sighing in the eternal spirit, so that the will begets the thoughts in the darknesses; the thoughts make the attraction and the desire; the desire is the1 ardour of the power: in the ardour of the power is the mouth which pronounces the fiat, and the fiat makes the matrix or the substance. The spirit which issues in the power subdivides it, and takes not one essence into another QH. 9. A 141 ;
3essence, but it subdivides it; and in the subdivided essence, as each is entire and not broken, the centre of the multiplying is found anew in each thing, in the same manner as in the spirit of man by the ascension of the thoughts. But now what is it that must be begotten in that centre? Principally, anew, a spirit in a generation and source like to what has been said above; to wit: a will in the anguish, and in the will a desire; now, the desire makes the attraction; in the will, the thought holds itself; in the thought, the mouth; and in the mouth is pronounced of the power, the fiat; the fiat makes the matrix, or the substance; the spirit subdivides it and forms it after the thought. 37. It is why there are several families of creatures; it is thus with the eternal thought, in the wisdom of God; the spirit formed each family according to each thought of the eternal wisdom of God; and the fiat gave to each its flesh according to the essence of each thought: for, in the thought exists the quality. Such is the generation and the first birth of all the creatures; in that generation, they are still in essence, and it is in that manner of issuing from the eternal thought, which is the wisdom of God, that they were drawn from the matrix by the fiat. But since they proceeded from the darknesses of the extra-generation, from the centre, which, in time, was begotten in will, then they are not eternal, but pas- ( ^^ ^J en. gi sing like a thought; and although they be material, nevertheless each source takes its own into itself, and reduces it anew to the nothing as it was in the beginning.
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.