Fetching
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.
15?. Mon cher lecteur, je veux t'exposer ceci clairemeiU ; car chacun n'a pas la perle pour atteindre la vierge sofiiie , et cependant , chacun majgré cela voudroit savoir comment s'est passée la chute d'Adam. Vois comment je t'ai représenté ici que l'ame avoit en soi trois principes ; savoir : i^. le plus intérieur, le ver ou l'esprit de soufre, et la source selon laquelle elle est un esprit ; et 20. la vertu divine qui rend le ver doux , clair et joyeux , par le mojen de quoi le ver on l'esprit est un ange , comme Dieu le père lui-même , enicndez d'un sem-» blable mode et engendrement ; et 3©. elle a le principe de ce monde. Ils sont tous unis les uns et les autres , et cependant aucun ne saisit l'autre , car ce sont trois principes , ou trois engendremens. 58. Vois: le ver tient de l'éternel ; il est en soi propriétaire de lui - même. Les deux autres lui sonf donnés , chacun par une génération : l'un à droite^ et l'autre à gauche. Maintenant , il est possible qu'il perde ses deux formes el générations ; car s'il regarde en arrière dans la puissance du feu colérique , et qu'il devienne faux envers la vierge sophie , alors elle s'éloigne de lui , et demeure comme une ligure dans son centre , et la porte de ïa vierge sôlràE eU fermée.
259. Or , si lu veux rétoUrniBr à la tierge soï»XttE , tu dois être engendré de nouveau par l*eâu dans le centre, et par l'esprit saint ; alors tu larecouvïés avec une gt*âiide gloire et une grande joie. Ce dont Christ dit 1 1l y a dan^ U ciel pourun pécheur ^uifàit pénitence , plus dejoié qtie pour qilàlrt'vihgl'àix''neuf justes qui n*ont pas besoin dé pénitence. Ainsi bienlot le pauvre pécheur est reçu de nouveau par la vierge sofhie, de manière qu'elle n'a plus besoin de se voiler ; el lui il devient une créature vivante et intelligente, un ange de Dieu. Personne ne peut exprimer cette joie ; il n'y a que l'ame régénérée qui la connoisse; le corps ne la comprend point , mais il tressaille , et ne sait point comment cela lui arrive. 60. La seconde forme ou principe, se perd pour le ver par la mort corporelle [ «'// n^a pas rempli son œuvre ] ; de façon que, quoiqu'il demeure en figure, c'est cependant toujours pour lui une honte et un tourment, de ce qu'ayant été un ange il est maintenant un ver el un esprit mécontent^ colérique et vénéneux. Ce dont l'écriture dit : Que le ver de Vim- • pie ne meurt point ^ et que son tourment demeure éter~ nellement. Car , si le ver n'avoit point eu la forme d'ange et d'homme , son tourment ne seroit pas si grand. Maiscela est cause qu'ilaun éternel remords, et qu'il n'oblient rieuplconnoîtrombredesagloire, et ne pe^||plus jamais vivre en elle. 61 C'est pourquoi , telest en bref le fondement de la chute d'Adam, pour en parler dans la plus haute
3piofondeur. Adam , par son penchant , a perdu la vierge sopuie , et a reçu dans son penchant la femme qui est une personne cagastrique ou sujète à la corruption 5 et la vierge sofhie attend encore continuellement de lui , qu'il revienne dans la nouvelle naissance pour qu'elle puisse le reprendre avec une grande gloire. C'est pourquoi pense à toi , fils de l'homme 5 j'écris ici ce que je sais certainement ^ et celui qui l'a vu , le témoigne ^ sans quoi je ne l'aurois pas su non plus*. (*»7) %^^«fc^%^»»»»»%»^^. CHAPITRE TREIZIEME, De la création de la femme ( extraite ) d'Adam. La porte charnelle , misérable et ténébreuse» I. 1 1. m'est pénible de vous retracer votre douleur^ mais puisque cela ne peut pas être autrement, nous allons pour un moment revêtir l'habit de la femme ; toutefois ce sera dans la vie de la vierge SOPHIE; et quoique nous souffrions beaucoup d'afflictions dans V habit de la femme , cependant la vierge SOPHIE nous en recompensera bien. Ainsi nous devons nous traîner avec la femme jusqu'à ce que nous l'envoyions au tombeau ; alors elle sera une ombre et une ligure, et la vierge sophis doit être notre épouse et notre digne couronne-, elle nous donnera sa perle et sa belle couroniic , et nous revêtira de ses ornemens ; d'après cela nous voulons faire cette entreprise j à cause du lys. Quoique nous allions éveiller une grande tempête , et quand même l'antechrist sépareroit la femme de nous \^ici^par la femme j Vauteur entend notre corps^^ cependant la vierge SOPHIE doit nous rester 5 car nous sommes mariés avec elle. Que chacun prenne ce qui est à lui, alors ce qui est à moi me restera. t ai8 ) CH. i3.
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.
15?. My dear reader, I will expose this to thee clearly; for every one has not the pearl to attain the virgin Sophia, and nevertheless, every one in spite of that would know how the fall of Adam came to pass. See how I have represented to thee here that the soul had in itself three principles; to wit: i^. the most interior, the worm or the spirit of sulphur, and the source according to which it is a spirit; and 20. the divine virtue which renders the worm sweet, clear and joyous, by means of which the worm or the spirit is an angel, as God the father himself, understand of a like mode and begetting; and 3©. it has the principle of this world. They are all united the one and the other, and nevertheless none seizes the other, for they are three principles, or three begettings. 58. See: the worm holds of the eternal; it is in itself proprietor of itself. The two others are given to it, each by a generation: the one at the right, and the other at the left. Now, it is possible that it lose its two forms and generations; for if it look backward into the power of the choleric fire, and that it become false toward the virgin Sophia, then she withdraws from it, and remains as a figure in its centre, and the gate of the virgin SOPHIA is shut.
259. Now, if thou wilt return to the virgin SOPHIA, thou must be begotten anew by the water in the centre, and by the holy spirit; then thou recoverest her with a great glory and a great joy. Whereof Christ saith 1 1There is in heaven for one sinner who does penance, more joy than for ninety-nine just who have no need of penance. Thus soon the poor sinner is received anew by the virgin Sophia, in such manner that she has no more need to veil herself; and he becomes a living and intelligent creature, an angel of God. No one can express this joy; there is none but the regenerated soul that knows it; the body comprehends it not, but it thrills, and knows not how that happens to it. 60. The second form or principle, is lost for the worm by the corporeal death [ if he has not fulfilled his work ]; so that, although it remain in figure, it is nevertheless always for it a shame and a torment, that having been an angel it is now a worm and a discontented spirit, choleric and venomous. Whereof the scripture says: That the worm of the impious dies not, and that his torment remains eternally. For, if the worm had not had the form of angel and of man, its torment would not be so great. But this is the cause that it has an eternal remorse, and that it obtains nothing but to know the shadow of its glory, and can never more live in it. 61 That is why, such in brief is the foundation of the fall of Adam, to speak of it in the highest
3profundity. Adam, by his inclination, has lost the virgin Sophia, and has received in his inclination the woman who is a cagastric person or subject to corruption 5 and the virgin Sophia awaits still continually of him, that he return in the new birth so that she may take him again with a great glory. That is why think upon thyself, son of man 5 I write here what I know certainly, and he who has seen it, testifies it, without which I should not have known it either. (*»7) %^^«fc^%^»»»»»%»^^. CHAPTER THIRTEENTH, Of the creation of the woman ( extracted ) from Adam. The carnal gate, miserable and tenebrous. I. 1 1. is painful to me to retrace to you your sorrow, but since that cannot be otherwise, we are going for a moment to put on the habit of the woman; nevertheless it will be in the life of the virgin SOPHIA; and although we suffer many afflictions in the habit of the woman, nevertheless the virgin SOPHIA will well recompense us for it. Thus we must drag ourselves along with the woman until we send her to the tomb; then she will be a shadow and a figure, and the virgin Sophia must be our spouse and our worthy crown; she will give us her pearl and her fair crown, and will clothe us with her ornaments; according to that we will make this enterprise, because of the lily. Although we are going to awaken a great tempest, and even though the antichrist should separate the woman from us \^here^by the woman j the author understands our body^^ nevertheless the virgin SOPHIA must remain to us 5 for we are married with her. Let each take what is his, then what is mine will remain to me. t ai8 ) CH. i3.
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.