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.
1la teinture , dans laquelle la belle vierge demeure l devint terrestre , fatiguée, abattue et foible. Car la racine puissante de la teinture , d'où elle tiroit sa force et son repos sans aucun sommeil , c'est-à-dire j la matrice céleste qui contient le paradis et le royaume céleste disparut en Adam , et s'en alla dans sonEther. 9. Lecteur , entends bien ceci. La vertu divine ou la belle vierge sophie , n'est pas détruite et venue à rien. Cela ne peut être ; seulement elle est demeurée dans le principe divin , et l'esprit ou l'ame d'Adam est demeuré avec son propre ver dans le troisième principe de ce monde j mais la vierge SOPHIE , ou la puissance divine , est dans le ciel, dans le paradis , et se contemple dans les qualités terrestres de l'ame ; s»ivoir : dans le soleil , et non dans la lune, entendez dans le plus haut principe de l'esprit de ce monde , là où la teinture est la plus noble et la plus claire , là d'où résulte la base affective de l'homme. 10. Elle voudroit bien retourner de nouveau en son lieu , vers son mari , si seulement la chair terrestre , avec la base affective et les sens terrestres , n'étoient pas dans le chemin î Car la sophie ne va pas là dedans , elle ne se laisse pas lier dans le centre céleste. Ses spéculations , ses soupirs , ses fréquens appels , ses avertissemens et ses profonds désirs l'occupent pendant tout le tems que la femme vil à sa place 5 mais pour celui qui est régénéré, elle se montre à lui dans une forme très triomphante , dans le centre de la base affective. Souvent aussi ( 322 ] ék, id«
2elle se pîonge jusque dans la teinture du sang du eœur , eedont le corps , avec la base affective et les sens treâsaiUeut et sont si triomphans , que c'e<st comme si ce cœur étoit dans le paradis : en effet il acquiert aussitôt une volonté paradisiaque. 11. Alors est semée la noble graine de sénevé dont Christ dit ; que d'abord elle est petite , mais ensuite elle croît comme un arbre , aussi long-tems que l'ame persévère dans la volonté ; mais la nobla SOPHIE ne reste pas à demeure ; car sa génération est de beaucoup plus élevée , c'est pourquoi elle ne demeure point dans des vaisseaux de terre ; elle visite donc ainsi son époux passagèrement et de tems en leros , s'il la désire; cela n'empêche pas qu'elle ne le prévienne en tout tems par des égards , et qu'elle ce Tappelle la première ; ce qui n'est entendu que dans le lys, dit très sérieusement et très solennellement l'esprit. C'est pourquoi , failes-y attention , vous , enfans de Dieu : Fange tîu grand con* seil vient dans la vallée de Josaphat avec la bull^ d'or : il la vend pour de l'huile , sans argent ; quiconque y vient, la rencontre. 12. Mais lorsque la teinture fut devenue toute terrestre er impuissante , par le triomphe de l'esprit de ce monde , elle ne pouvoit plus engendrer célestement,et elle fut ainsi retenue dans l'impuissance. Alors se trouva là le conseil de Dieu qui dit : Puisqu'il (f homme ) est devenu terrestre , et qu'il n'esl plus capable ^engendrer , nous voulons lui former une aide. Le fiât resta dans le centre , et sépara la matrice d'avec le limhus 5 et le fiât saisit daa$ le 0. i3. ( 223 ) sein d'Adam une cote de son côté droit , et en forma la femme*
313. Mais ici tu dois comprendre que le fiât pour la création étoit dans Adam : quand il dormit, son corps n'étoit point encore devenu ainsi noueux , et avec des os durs. O ! non , cela commença lorsque la mère Eve mordit dans la pomme , et en donna aussi à Adam. Toutefois l'infection et la mort terrestre se trouvèrent bientôt présentes avec la défaillance et les maladies mortelles. Les côtes et les os étoient encore puissance et vertu ^ et Eve fut créée de la puissance et de la vertu j dont les côtes dévoient se former. ^4. Toutefois tu dois parfaitement comprendre qu'elle n'a point ^té tirée de là comme un esprit, XKiais entièrement en substance. On doit dire iqu'Adam a reçu une déchirure , et que la femme porte l'esprit d'Adam en chair et os ; mais dans Pesprit il y a quelque différence , car la femme porte la matrice et Adam le limbus ou la masculinité ; et ils sont deux dans une seule chair 5 ,non séparés dans la nature; car les deux doivent de nouveau engendrer un homme , ce qu'auparavant un seul auiroit pu faire. Utie aimable porte, i5. Tandis que nous sommes ici à écrire sur la dégradation d'Adam, l'esprit nous rappelle un mystère céleste de la côte d'Adam,qire le fiât lui a prise ( 11^ ) CH. iS5 9i en a formé une femme , laquelle côte doit ensuite avoir manqué à Adam -, car le texte dans Moïse dit positivement , que Dieu a rempli la place avec do la chair.
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.
1the tincture, in which the fair virgin dwells, became terrestrial, wearied, cast down and feeble. For the powerful root of the tincture, whence it drew its force and its repose without any sleep, that is to say, the celestial matrix which contains paradise and the celestial kingdom disappeared in Adam, and went away into its Ether. 9. Reader, understand this well. The divine virtue or the fair virgin Sophia, is not destroyed and come to nothing. That cannot be; only she has remained in the divine principle, and the spirit or the soul of Adam has remained with its own worm in the third principle of this world; but the virgin SOPHIA, or the divine power, is in heaven, in paradise, and contemplates herself in the terrestrial qualities of the soul; to wit: in the sun, and not in the moon, understand in the highest principle of the spirit of this world, there where the tincture is the noblest and the clearest, there whence results the affective base of man. 10. She would indeed return anew into her place, toward her husband, if only the terrestrial flesh, with the affective base and the terrestrial senses, were not in the way! For the Sophia goes not therein, she lets not herself be bound in the celestial centre. Her speculations, her sighs, her frequent calls, her warnings and her profound desires occupy her during all the time that the woman lives in her place 5 but for him who is regenerated, she shows herself to him in a very triumphant form, in the centre of the affective base. Often also ( 322 ék, id«
2she plunges herself even into the tincture of the blood of the heart, whereof the body, with the affective base and the senses thrill and are so triumphant, that it is as if this heart were in paradise: in effect it acquires at once a paradisiacal will. 11. Then is sown the noble grain of mustard-seed whereof Christ says: that at first it is little, but afterwards it grows as a tree, as long a time as the soul perseveres in the will; but the noble SOPHIA remains not permanently; for her generation is by much more elevated, that is why she dwells not in vessels of earth; she visits then thus her spouse in passing and from time to time, if he desire her; that hinders not that she prevent him at all times by attentions, and that she call him first; which is understood only in the lily, says very seriously and very solemnly the spirit. That is why, take heed to it, you, children of God: The angel of the great council comes into the valley of Josaphat with the bull of gold: he sells it for oil, without money; whoever comes there, meets it. 12. But when the tincture was become all terrestrial and impotent, by the triumph of the spirit of this world, it could no more beget celestially, and it was thus retained in impotence. Then was found there the council of God which said: Since he (man) is become terrestrial, and is no more capable of begetting, we will form him a help. The fiat remained in the centre, and separated the matrix from the limbus 5 and the fiat seized in the 0. i3. ( 223 ) bosom of Adam a rib of his right side, and formed of it the woman.
313. But here thou must comprehend that the fiat for the creation was in Adam: when he slept, his body was not yet become thus knotty, and with hard bones. O! no, that began when the mother Eve bit into the apple, and gave also of it to Adam. Nevertheless the infection and the terrestrial death were soon present with the failing and the mortal maladies. The ribs and the bones were still power and virtue, and Eve was created of the power and of the virtue whereof the ribs were to be formed. ^4. Nevertheless thou must perfectly comprehend that she was not drawn thence as a spirit, but entirely in substance. One must say that Adam received a rending, and that the woman bears the spirit of Adam in flesh and bone; but in the spirit there is some difference, for the woman bears the matrix and Adam the limbus or the masculinity; and they are two in one single flesh 5 not separated in nature; for the two must anew beget a man, which formerly one alone could have done. An amiable gate, i5. Whilst we are here writing upon the degradation of Adam, the spirit recalls to us a celestial mystery of the rib of Adam, which the fiat took from him ( 11^ ) CH. iS5 9and formed of it a woman, which rib must then have been wanting to Adam; for the text in Moses says positively, that God filled the place with flesh.
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.