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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.
1a fountain: As the sun standeth in the midst among the planets, and is a king of the stars, and the heart of nature in this world, so great also is a Cherubim or king of angels. 21. As the six planets with the sun are leaders of hosts, and give up or submit their will to the sun, that it may reign and work in them, so all the angels give up or submit their will to the king, and the princely angels are in council with the king. 22. But thou must know here that they all have a lovewill one to another, none of them grudgeth the other * his form and beauty; for as it goeth among the spirits of God, so it goeth among these. * " none of them grudgeth the other," etc., " none grudgeth the other his form and beauty; for it is (or goeth) among them as among the spirits of God " (St Martin). 23. They all have jointly and equally the divine joy, and they equally enjoy the heavenly food, therein there is no difference. 24. Only in the colours and strength of power is there a difference, but no difference at all in the perfection; for every one hath in him the power of all the spirits of God; therefore when the light of the Son of God shineth on them, then each angel's quality sheweth itself by the colour. 25. I have reckoned up only some few of the forms and colours of them, but there are a great many more that might be written down, which I will omit for brevity's sake. 26. For as the Deity presenteth itself infinitely in its rising up, so there are unsearchable varieties
2of colour and form among the angels: I can shew thee no right similitude of it in this world, unless it be in a blossoming field of flowers in May, which yet is but a dead and earthly type. Of the Angelical Joy. Question. 27. Now it may be asked, What then is it that the angels do in heaven? Or to what end and purpose hath God created them? Answer. 28. You may observe this, you greedy, covetous, griping persons, you who in this world seek after pride, state, dignity, honour, fame, glory, power, money and goods, and squeeze out the sweat and blood of the poor, oppressed and distressed, and spend their labours upon your gallantry, bravery and stateliness, and think yourselves better than plain and simple lay, vulgar people, and suppose it is what God hath created you for. Question. Why hath God created angelprinces and notmade them all equal, or alike? Answer. 29. Behold, God is the God of order; and as it is, and as it goeth and moveth in his government in himself, that is, in his birth or geniture, and in his rising up, so also is the order of the angels. 30. Now as there are in him chiefly seven qualities, whereby the whole divine being is. driven on, and sheweth itself infinitely in these seven qualities, and yet these seven qualities are the chief or prime in the infiniteness, whereby
3the divine birth or geniture stands eternally in its order unchangeably: 31. And as in the midst or centre of the seven spirits of God the heart of life is generated, whence the divine joy riseth up; thus also is the order of angels. 32. The angelprinces were created according to the spirits of God, and the Cherubim according to the heart of God: And as the divine being worketh, so also do the angels. 33. That quality which riseth up in God's being, and chiefly sheweth itself in its working, as in the rising up of the tone or tune, or of the divine working, wrestling and fighting, that angelical prince who is most strongly addicted to that quality begins, in his rank or file and round, with his legions, with singing, ringing forth, dancing, rejoicing and jubilating. 34. This is heavenly music, for here every one singeth according to the voice of his quality, and the prince leadeth the choir or chorus, as a chanter or singingmaster with his scholars; and the king rejoiceth and jubilateth with his angels, to the honour of the great God, and to the increasing and multiplying of the heavenly joys, and that is in the heart of God as a holy sport or scene; and to that end also are they created for the joy and honour of God. 35. Now when the heavenly music of the angel riseth up, then in the heavenly pomp, in the divine Salitter, there rise up all manner of vegetations, springings or sprouts, also all manner of figures, shapes or ideas, and all manner of colours; for the Deity presenteth, sheweth or discovereth itself in endless and unsearchable varieties of kinds, colours, ideas, forms and joys.
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.
1a fountain: As the sun standeth in the midst among the planets, and is a king of the stars, and the heart of nature in this world, so great also is a Cherubim or king of angels. 21. As the six planets with the sun are leaders of hosts, and give up or submit their will to the sun, that it may reign and work in them, so all the angels give up or submit their will to the king, and the princely angels are in council with the king. 22. But thou must know here that they all have a lovewill one to another, none of them grudgeth the other * his form and beauty; for as it goeth among the spirits of God, so it goeth among these. * " none of them grudgeth the other," etc., " none grudgeth the other his form and beauty; for it is (or goeth) among them as among the spirits of God " (St Martin). 23. They all have jointly and equally the divine joy, and they equally enjoy the heavenly food, therein there is no difference. 24. Only in the colours and strength of power is there a difference, but no difference at all in the perfection; for every one hath in him the power of all the spirits of God; therefore when the light of the Son of God shineth on them, then each angel's quality sheweth itself by the colour. 25. I have reckoned up only some few of the forms and colours of them, but there are a great many more that might be written down, which I will omit for brevity's sake. 26. For as the Deity presenteth itself infinitely in its rising up, so there are unsearchable varieties
2of colour and form among the angels: I can shew thee no right similitude of it in this world, unless it be in a blossoming field of flowers in May, which yet is but a dead and earthly type. Of the Angelical Joy. Question. 27. Now it may be asked, What then is it that the angels do in heaven? Or to what end and purpose hath God created them? Answer. 28. You may observe this, you greedy, covetous, griping persons, you who in this world seek after pride, state, dignity, honour, fame, glory, power, money and goods, and squeeze out the sweat and blood of the poor, oppressed and distressed, and spend their labours upon your gallantry, bravery and stateliness, and think yourselves better than plain and simple lay, vulgar people, and suppose it is what God hath created you for. Question. Why hath God created angelprinces and notmade them all equal, or alike? Answer. 29. Behold, God is the God of order; and as it is, and as it goeth and moveth in his government in himself, that is, in his birth or geniture, and in his rising up, so also is the order of the angels. 30. Now as there are in him chiefly seven qualities, whereby the whole divine being is. driven on, and sheweth itself infinitely in these seven qualities, and yet these seven qualities are the chief or prime in the infiniteness, whereby
3the divine birth or geniture stands eternally in its order unchangeably: 31. And as in the midst or centre of the seven spirits of God the heart of life is generated, whence the divine joy riseth up; thus also is the order of angels. 32. The angelprinces were created according to the spirits of God, and the Cherubim according to the heart of God: And as the divine being worketh, so also do the angels. 33. That quality which riseth up in God's being, and chiefly sheweth itself in its working, as in the rising up of the tone or tune, or of the divine working, wrestling and fighting, that angelical prince who is most strongly addicted to that quality begins, in his rank or file and round, with his legions, with singing, ringing forth, dancing, rejoicing and jubilating. 34. This is heavenly music, for here every one singeth according to the voice of his quality, and the prince leadeth the choir or chorus, as a chanter or singingmaster with his scholars; and the king rejoiceth and jubilateth with his angels, to the honour of the great God, and to the increasing and multiplying of the heavenly joys, and that is in the heart of God as a holy sport or scene; and to that end also are they created for the joy and honour of God. 35. Now when the heavenly music of the angel riseth up, then in the heavenly pomp, in the divine Salitter, there rise up all manner of vegetations, springings or sprouts, also all manner of figures, shapes or ideas, and all manner of colours; for the Deity presenteth, sheweth or discovereth itself in endless and unsearchable varieties of kinds, colours, ideas, forms and joys.
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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