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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.
16. Si l'ame n'avoit pas été au milieu , alors Adam suroît dû rester vraiment un animal irraisonnable ; mais comme l'ame avoit été soufflée du limbus de Dieu dans Adam , par l'esprit saint , alors la miséricorde où le cœur de Dieu devoit de nouveau l'améliorer , et apporter de nouveau du limbus céleste 5 le centre , et devenir lui-même chair , et engendrer dans l'ame par le fiât , le nouvel homme , qui est caché dans l'ancien ; car l'ancien appartient maintenant à la corruption , et s'en va dans son Ether, et le nouveau demeure éternellement. Comment cela est- il arrivé? Voici sur cet objet , une instruction fondamentale , où tu peux voir, dans le cœur , le vieux et le nouvel homme , pourvu que tu sois né de Dieu , et que tu aies la perle. Sinon , tu verras à peine ici le vieil homme , et tu ne contempleras point le nouveau. 6. Le voile de Moïse doit s'ôter, et tu doîscon- . sidérer Moïse en face , si tu veux voir le nouvel homme. Sans la perle , tu n'ôteras point ce voile , et tu ne connoîtras point ce qu'étoit Adam avant sa chute. Car, Adam lui-même après sa chute n'a CH. loI C 1^ V plus connu le premier homme; c'est pourquoi il fut honteux de sa monstrueuse forme , et se cacha derrière les arbres , dans le jardin. En eff-et il se regarda , et vit quelle forme bestiale il avoit sur soi ; car aussitôt il reçut pour sa reproduction , des membres de bête, que le fiât lui créa dans le troisième principe par l'esprit du grand monde.
27. Personne ne doit croire que l'homme avant sa chute eût des membres d* bête pour sa reproduction , mais bien des membres célestes ; de même aussi il n'avoit point de boyaux: car de pareils organes et une puanteur comme celle que l'homme a dans le corps , ne peuvent appartenir à la trinit6 sainte, dans le paradis , mais bien à la terre qui doit retourner dans son Ether. Mais l'homme avoit été créé immortel , et en outre, saint,. semblable aux anges ; et quoiqu'il fût produit du limbus , cependant il étoit pur. Quant à ce qu'il est maintenant,, et d'où il a été formé , la suite va l'apprendre. 8. Vois : lorsque Dieu eut créé le troisième principe après la chute des démons, quand ils furent déchus de leur gloire (car ils avoient été auges , demeurant dans la place de ce monde ), il voulut néanmoins que son dessein et son plan subsistassent , et voulut de nouveau établir dans le lieu de ce monde , une légion angélique qui subsistât éternellement ; et lorsqu'il eut produit les créatures , dont l'ombre devoit demeurer éternellement après la transmutation de ce monde , il ne se trouva aucune créature qui put en avoir de la joie , et aussi il ne se trouva au^ cuue créature qui pût gouverner les animaux dans '4 h > \l ! / (r (i^d> cà. ta. cte moûdè.C'est pourquoi DîeudîhFaîsonsPhotnmey une image semblable à nous, et qu'il domine sur' tous les animaux , et sur les créatures de la terre: Ef Bieu cr<^a Thomme à son image ; iMe créa àPimag» de Dieu.
39. Maintenant, on se demandé : qu'est-ce qu& l'image de Dieu ? Contemple , considère la divinité 5 tu trouveras le point. Car , Dieu n*est pas un liomme animal ; mais fhomme dcvôit être une' image, et aussi une similitude de Dieu dans laquelle Dieu auroit demeuré. Or, Dieu est un esprit ; et etf lui sont tous les trois principes : il vouloit produire une image qui eût en soi lous les trois principes ; c'est là, véritablement , la ressemblance de Dieu , et il créa Adam. On conçoit bien avec Moïse que Dieu ne le créa , ni ne le forma d'un morceau de terre: 10. Mais le îlmhus dont îl lè créa est là matrice delà terre, et la terre est engendrée dé là; or^ la substance dont il le créa étoit une masse, une quintessence provenant des étoiles et des élémens , qui devint terrestre à l'instant que Phomme éveilla le centre terrestre , et l'homme apparfint sur-lechamp à la terre , et à la corruptibiliié. 11. Mais la masse, ou la substance, étoir extraite de la matrice céleste , qui est k racine de la génération externe ou terrestre. Le centre célesta devoit rester fixe, et le centre terrestre ne devoit pas être éveillé» Dans une semblable puissance, l'homme étoit un souverain au-dessus des astres et des élémens 5 toutes les créatures l'auroient redouté, tn, 10. ,( ih ) et il aurait été impérissable : il avoit en soi la lorç^ et les propriétés de toutes les créatures : car sa puissanoe venoit de la puissance de l'inielU^ence. Or , il devoit avoir tous les trois principes , puisqu'il devoit ê*re la ressemblance de Pieu : 10. 1^ source des ténèbres ^ 20, aussi celle de la lumière^; . et ao., aussi celle de ce monde; et cependant -il .ne devoit pas vivre , et inqmlifier dans toutes les .trQi^,jçnais seulement dans w^q^ sayoir : la paradir. siaqu^ , dans laquelle s'élèye la vie.
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.
16. If the soul had not been in the middle, then Adam must indeed have remained an unreasoning animal; but as the soul had been breathed from the limbus of God into Adam, by the holy spirit, then the mercy or the heart of God was to better it anew, and to bring anew from the celestial limbus 5 the centre, and become itself flesh, and beget in the soul by the fiat, the new man, who is hidden in the old; for the old belongs now to corruption, and goes away into its Ether, and the new abides eternally. How did this come to pass? Here upon this object is a fundamental instruction, wherein thou mayest see, in the heart, the old and the new man, provided thou be born of God, and that thou have the pearl. If not, thou wilt hardly see here the old man, and thou wilt not contemplate the new. 6. The veil of Moses must be taken away, and thou must con- . sider Moses in the face, if thou wilt see the new man. Without the pearl, thou wilt not take away that veil, and thou wilt not know what Adam was before his fall. For, Adam himself after his fall knew CH. loI C 1^ V the first man no more; that is why he was ashamed of his monstrous form, and hid himself behind the trees, in the garden. In effect he looked upon himself, and saw what bestial form he had upon him; for at once he received for his reproduction, members of a beast, which the fiat created for him in the third principle by the spirit of the great world.
27. No one must believe that man before his fall had members of a beast for his reproduction, but rather celestial members; in like manner also he had no bowels: for such organs and a stench like that which man has in the body, cannot belong to the holy trinit6y, in paradise, but rather to the earth which must return into its Ether. But man had been created immortal, and moreover, holy, like to the angels; and although he was produced from the limbus, yet he was pure. As to what he is now, and whence he was formed, what follows will teach it. 8. See: when God had created the third principle after the fall of the demons, when they were fallen from their glory (for they had been angels, dwelling in the place of this world), he willed nevertheless that his design and his plan should subsist, and willed to establish anew in the place of this world, an angelic legion that should subsist eternally; and when he had produced the creatures, whose shadow was to remain eternally after the transmutation of this world, there was found no creature that could have joy therein, and also there was found no creature that could govern the animals in '4 h > \l ! / (r (i^d> cà. ta. this world. That is why God said: Let us make man, an image like unto us, and let him rule over all the animals, and over the creatures of the earth: And God created man in his image; he created him in the image of God.
39. Now, one asks: what is the image of God? Contemplate, consider the divinity 5 thou wilt find the point. For, God is not an animal man; but man was to be an image, and also a similitude of God in which God would have dwelt. Now, God is a spirit; and in him are all the three principles: he willed to produce an image which should have in itself all the three principles; that is, truly, the resemblance of God, and he created Adam. One well conceives with Moses that God neither created him, nor formed him of a piece of earth: 10. But the limbus whereof he created him is the matrix of the earth, and the earth is begotten thence; now the substance whereof he created him was a mass, a quintessence proceeding from the stars and the elements, which became terrestrial the instant that man awakened the terrestrial centre, and man belonged forthwith to the earth, and to corruptibility. 11. But the mass, or the substance, was extracted from the celestial matrix, which is the root of the external or terrestrial generation. The celestial centre was to remain fixed, and the terrestrial centre was not to be awakened. In such a power, man was a sovereign above the stars and the elements 5 all the creatures would have dreaded him, tn, 10. ,( ih ) and he would have been imperishable: he had in himself the force and the properties of all the creatures: for his power came from the power of the intelligence. Now, he was to have all the three principles, since he was to be the resemblance of God: 10. 1^ source of the darkness, 20, also that of the light; . and ao., also that of this world; and yet he was not to live, and to inqualify in all the three, but only in one, to wit: the paradisiacal, in which life raises itself.
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.