Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

Gate passedSeeker and aboveModern transcription — not a facsimileJacob Boehme (1575–1624)PUBLIC DOMAIN as published. Boehme d. 1624; the Sparrow translation is 1656. Per-part determination MADE 2026-08-29: the eight front-matter segments carrying the 2009 electronic edition own introductory apparatus were withheld (three excised in full, five redacted in part where a public-domain title block or Boehme text shared the page). The remaining 5,022 segments are public domain and are open at seeker tier.905 of 1000 segments carry a modern register · 343 pp

Jacob Boehme — the works in English, and one in Frencheditor’s preface to the volume

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.

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110. Adam and Eve were earth after the fall ... 3 10. What flesh Adam had before the fall ... 4 10. How Adam was an unreasonable beast ... 5 10. Of Adam's knowledge and bestial members after the fall 6,7 10. Out of what Adam was created . . . . 10, 11 773 774 THE THREE PRINCIPLES CHAP. Adam. VERSE 10. How Adam, should have generated an angelical host or numerous offspring . . . . . .12 10. A description of Adam's properties, or condition before the fall .... . . 17-21 11. Before the fall A dam had other qualities . • 9-11 11. Why Adam was tempted .-•-.. 24 1 1. A dam's temptation at large, with all the circumstances 31-38 12. How long Adam was in paradise . . . 2-10 12. Of Adam's feeding, before his sleep . . . .16 12. Adam slept not before his fall . . . . .17 12. Adam's image, and the image in the resurrection are all one . . . . . . . -17 12. Adam's spirit which he had from God, discourseth with his spirit which he had from this world 36-47 12. Whence the original spirit, soul, and worm of Adam proceeded ....... 49-51 12. What the difference is between Adam's young man and young maid or virgin ..... 52, 53 13. How the heavenly body of Adam was changed . . 2 13. Of the pit out of which Adam is supposed to be taken 4 13. How A dam's side is repaired by Christ's side . . 17 13. How Adam's property was before his sleep . .18 14. The fall of Adam, his inward Tree of Temptation, and tempting . . 34-36

215. How Adam could have eaten and generated in paradise 16 15. The Adamical man likened to a thief . . .35 17. Adam was captivated by the spirit of this world. . 2 17. Adam had not the image of the world before his fall . 3, 4 17. Adam was before the fall, as the just shall be when they shall rise again .... .5 17. Where Adam was created ; both body and spirit . 6 17. A dam was not created to corruptibility . . .10 17. Out of what Adam was; and the spirit of his essences 12 17. A dam's food before his sleep 13 17. Adam was not a lump of earth, but he became such . 20 17. How, and how long, he stood in the garden : and concerning his properties 25 17. What light Adam saw by in paradise . .25 17. How long Adam slept 29 17. Adam became another image in his sleep . . .30 17. How Adam was before and after his sleep . . .31 17. In paradise Adam saw from a threefold spirit . .31 17. Adam and Eve's horrible biting of the apple . . 33 17. Adam's condition before his sleep . . . .47 17. Out of what Adam's body was . . .47 THE CONTENTS OF THE THREE PRINCIPLES 775 CHAP. Adam. VBRSE 17. What was behind, before, and beneath Adam . . 49 17. How, and how long, Adam was in paradise . 50-53 17. How Adam^iell into lust and into sleep . . .54 17. Adam's properties after his sleep . . . .56 17. How Adam and Eve conversed in the garden . . 57 17. Ho \v Adam and Eve became altogether earthly . . 58 17. How Adam and Eve were both ashamed . . .80

317. What, and how, Adam was before his sleep . . 82 17. How Adam should have propagated . . . .82 17. How Adam and Eve heard the voice of God . . 83 17. How Adam became a fleshly man . . . .87 17. What Adam and Eve understood concerning the Treader upon the Serpent ..... 102 18. Adam did eat in another manner after his fall . . 4 18. Adam could eat of no paradisical fruit after the fall . 6 20. Adam and Eve were ashamed after the fall . . 5 20. How Adam's clothes were made .... 6 20. How Adam and Eve kept together after their being driven forth of the garden . . . . .44 20. What was in Adam and Eve's mind, was manifest in Cain 81 20. Adam and Eve were terrified at the murder . . 84 21. Adam's great knowledge of the Mysteries ... 9 21. Out of what Adam was created, both body and soul . 10 21. The true ground of -4 dam's fall 11 22. Adam and Eve gat a body that belongeth not to the Deity 22. Of Adam's body and soul after the fall . . .17 22. Adam should not have generated in an earthly manner '17 22. Adam's own will only could perish . . . .54 22. From whence Adam' a soul or will was breathed in 55, 56 25. Why Adam went into the world . . . .54 25. Adam's sleep and Christ's rest in the grave are all one 73 25. How Adam should have lived in paradise . . .92 Amjels. 5. From whence the angels have their bodies . . 24, 25 7. From whence the angels are 9. Why angels and spirits are eternal, and beasts not . 42

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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Commentary

whole issue ·

Cross-estate[P-V]translated_asboehme:2:1:003

This English 'Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence' and boehme:11 are the same work in two languages — and the French is not just any translation. It is Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's own: 'Des trois principes de l'essence divine', issued by the Périsse brothers of the rue Mercière. Saint-Martin learned German in his fifties expressly to read Boehme, and spent his last years translating him. The estate therefore holds, side by side, the text that formed the Unknown Philosopher and the form in which he gave it to France — the single most direct documentary link between the two founders of this corpus.

→ boehme:11