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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.
1all other things in this world. For nature hath indeed written in man's heart that it is better than other stones and earth; but nature could not reveal or manifest to him the ground thereof, from whence it is come or proceeded, whereby now thou mayest observe the Dayspring or Morningredness. 84. There are many several sorts of mineral ores, according as the Salitter in nature's heaven was predominant at its rising up in the light of love: For every qualifying or radical spirit in the heavenly nature containeth the property or kind of all the qualifying or fountain spirits, for it is ever infected or affected with the other,* from whence the life and the unsearchable birth or geniture of the Deity existeth: But yet it is predominant as to its own power, and that is its own body, from whence it hath the name, * "for it is ever infected or affected with the other" (inficiret). See Ch. 8, par. 65. A freer rendering, but perfectly accurate as to the meaning, would be, " and each is ever infected with the others." 85. But now every qualifying or fountain spirit hath the property of the whole or total nature, and its fabric or work, at the time of the kindling of the wrath, was together also incorporated in death; and out of every spirit's fabric or work, earth, stones, mineral ores, and water came to be. 86. There also in the earth there are found, according to the quality of each spirit, mineral ores, stones, water and earth; and therefore it is that the earth is of so many various qualities, all as each qualifying or fountain spirit, with its innate, instant birth or geniture, was at the time of the kindling. 87. Nature hath likewise manifested or revealed so much to man, that he knoweth how he may
2melt away the strange or heterogene matter from every qualifying or fountain spirit's strange infected innate birth or geniture; whereby that qualifying or fountain spirit might remain chief in its own primacy. 88. You have an example of this in gold, and in silver, which you cannot make to be pure or fine gold or silver, unless it be melted seven times in the fire.[Psalm xii. 6.] But when that is done, then it remaineth in the middle or central seat in the heart of nature, which is the water, sitting * in its own quality and colour. * " remaineth . . . sitting." See Ch. 25, par. 82. 89. I. First, the astringent quality, which holdeth the Salitter captive in the hard death, must be melted away, which is the gross stony dross. 90. II. Then secondly, the astringent death of the water is to be separated, from which proceeds a poisonous venomous water of separation, or aquafortis, which standeth in the rising up of the fireflash in death, and which is the evil, malignant, even the very worst, source of all in death, even the astringent and bitter death itself; for this is the place where the life, which existeth the in the sweet water, died in death: And that separateth itself now in the second melting. 91. III. Thirdly, the bitter quality, which existeth in the kindling of the water in the fireflash, is melted away, for that is a rager, raver, tyrant and destroyer. Also no silver nor gold can subsist, if that be not killed or mortified; for it maketh all dry and brittle, and presenteth or sheweth forth itself in several colours; for it rideth through all spirits, assuming the colours of all spirits.
392. IV. Fourthly, the firespirit, which standeth in the horrible anguish and pangs of life, must be also melted away, for it is a continued father of the wrath, and out of or from that is generated the hellish woe. 93. Now when the wrath of these four spirits is killed, then the mineral orey Salitter standeth in the water, like a tough matter, and looketh like that spirit which is predominant in the mineral ore; and the light which standeth in the fire coloureth [tinctureth] it according to its own quality, be it silver or gold. 94. And now this matter in the fourth melting looks like silver or gold, but it is not yet fixed [subsistent], nor is it tough or malleable and pure enough; its body indeed is subsistent, but not the spirit. 95. V. Now when it is melted a fifth time, then the lovespirit riseth up in the water through the light, and maketh the dead body living again, so that the matter, which remained in the first four meltings, getteth power or strength again, which was the proper own of that qualifying or fountain spirit which was predominant in this mineral ore. 96. VI. Now when it is melted the sixth time, then it groweth somewhat harder, and then the life, which is risen up in the love, moveth and stirreth itself. From this stirring existeth the tone in the hardness, and the mineral ore gets a clear sound, for the hard and dead beating * or noise of the bitter fiery matter is gone away. * " hard and dead beating " (Pochen). See Ch. 10, par 119. 97. In this sixth melting I hold to be the greatest danger for [al]chymists about the preparing of their silver and gold. For there belongeth
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.
1all other things in this world. For nature hath indeed written in man's heart that it is better than other stones and earth; but nature could not reveal or manifest to him the ground thereof, from whence it is come or proceeded, whereby now thou mayest observe the Dayspring or Morningredness. 84. There are many several sorts of mineral ores, according as the Salitter in nature's heaven was predominant at its rising up in the light of love: For every qualifying or radical spirit in the heavenly nature containeth the property or kind of all the qualifying or fountain spirits, for it is ever infected or affected with the other,* from whence the life and the unsearchable birth or geniture of the Deity existeth: But yet it is predominant as to its own power, and that is its own body, from whence it hath the name, * "for it is ever infected or affected with the other" (inficiret). See Ch. 8, par. 65. A freer rendering, but perfectly accurate as to the meaning, would be, " and each is ever infected with the others." 85. But now every qualifying or fountain spirit hath the property of the whole or total nature, and its fabric or work, at the time of the kindling of the wrath, was together also incorporated in death; and out of every spirit's fabric or work, earth, stones, mineral ores, and water came to be. 86. There also in the earth there are found, according to the quality of each spirit, mineral ores, stones, water and earth; and therefore it is that the earth is of so many various qualities, all as each qualifying or fountain spirit, with its innate, instant birth or geniture, was at the time of the kindling. 87. Nature hath likewise manifested or revealed so much to man, that he knoweth how he may
2melt away the strange or heterogene matter from every qualifying or fountain spirit's strange infected innate birth or geniture; whereby that qualifying or fountain spirit might remain chief in its own primacy. 88. You have an example of this in gold, and in silver, which you cannot make to be pure or fine gold or silver, unless it be melted seven times in the fire.[Psalm xii. 6.] But when that is done, then it remaineth in the middle or central seat in the heart of nature, which is the water, sitting * in its own quality and colour. * " remaineth . . . sitting." See Ch. 25, par. 82. 89. I. First, the astringent quality, which holdeth the Salitter captive in the hard death, must be melted away, which is the gross stony dross. 90. II. Then secondly, the astringent death of the water is to be separated, from which proceeds a poisonous venomous water of separation, or aquafortis, which standeth in the rising up of the fireflash in death, and which is the evil, malignant, even the very worst, source of all in death, even the astringent and bitter death itself; for this is the place where the life, which existeth the in the sweet water, died in death: And that separateth itself now in the second melting. 91. III. Thirdly, the bitter quality, which existeth in the kindling of the water in the fireflash, is melted away, for that is a rager, raver, tyrant and destroyer. Also no silver nor gold can subsist, if that be not killed or mortified; for it maketh all dry and brittle, and presenteth or sheweth forth itself in several colours; for it rideth through all spirits, assuming the colours of all spirits.
392. IV. Fourthly, the firespirit, which standeth in the horrible anguish and pangs of life, must be also melted away, for it is a continued father of the wrath, and out of or from that is generated the hellish woe. 93. Now when the wrath of these four spirits is killed, then the mineral orey Salitter standeth in the water, like a tough matter, and looketh like that spirit which is predominant in the mineral ore; and the light which standeth in the fire coloureth [tinctureth] it according to its own quality, be it silver or gold. 94. And now this matter in the fourth melting looks like silver or gold, but it is not yet fixed [subsistent], nor is it tough or malleable and pure enough; its body indeed is subsistent, but not the spirit. 95. V. Now when it is melted a fifth time, then the lovespirit riseth up in the water through the light, and maketh the dead body living again, so that the matter, which remained in the first four meltings, getteth power or strength again, which was the proper own of that qualifying or fountain spirit which was predominant in this mineral ore. 96. VI. Now when it is melted the sixth time, then it groweth somewhat harder, and then the life, which is risen up in the love, moveth and stirreth itself. From this stirring existeth the tone in the hardness, and the mineral ore gets a clear sound, for the hard and dead beating * or noise of the bitter fiery matter is gone away. * " hard and dead beating " (Pochen). See Ch. 10, par 119. 97. In this sixth melting I hold to be the greatest danger for [al]chymists about the preparing of their silver and gold. For there belongeth
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.
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