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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.
116. How the Father entertaineth the lost son ... 23 17. How we go to our true Father, and become his children 1 Fiat. 7. How the water is become material. The working of the Fiat 71 9. How the spirit of God driveth the Fiat . . .115 Figure. 5. When God shall be manifested, the figure of every thing remaineth eternally 122 5. The beasts after the Last Day get no bodies more, but the figure of the elementary substance remaineth .131 9. Why the figure of all kinds of creatures must remain in eternity 6 0 9. How God hath manifested himself in a figurative form i n the great wonders o f God 62 10. How the figure of the will standeth in the desire: Also of the creation 12 18. The image hath stood from eternity, as a figure in a dream 18 Fire. 2. A recital of the original of the fire .... 69 4. Of the fire of the liberty: How death affordeth weight: How the anguish becometh material ... 14 4. Without fire there is no body that hath any feeling . 15 5. Of the original of the fire, and of the air or wind . 103 5. How the property of the water holdeth the fire captive 104 7. The eternal nature, and the eternal liberty, are represented by fire 65 7. How the matrix of the water holdeth the fire captive 70 8. How the fire devoureth the substantiality ... 33 CHAP. Fire. VERSE 8. How the substantiality flieth out from the fire again . 34 8. Of the twofold/ire 41 9. A description of the eighth number, viz. the fire . 90
210. The author sheweth us the Mysterium Magnum. The fire is the eighth number. Also a description of the fire 27 10. The most inward tincture is the ninth number; the tenth number is the eternal fire of God; with a wonderful description of it 28 11. What fire that is which will melt away the stones and earth 16 11. How all must pass through the fire, and the floor must be purged 28 14. How the soul must pass through the fire, viz. the eighth form, or the law of Moses .... 52 Flash. 2. The flash is free from nature 25 2 . The, flash i s the third form 28 Flesh. 11. We are all one flesh, soul, and spirit .... 68 11. How the flesh that in Adam became earth, became heaven again .70 11. How Christ's soul and flesh is our soul and flesh: Also how we live in Christ . . . . 71 Form. Forms. 2. Harsh, sour, tart, stern, fierce attraction, is the first form 32 2 . Bitter sting is the second form 33 2. The flash of liberty is the third form .... 34 2. What maketh the third form in nature ... 35 2. What is called the fourth form in nature ... 36 2. How the fifth form riseth up 73 2. How the fifth form is the true original of life . . 74 3. How the sixth form in nature is generated. . . 13 3. Of the seventh form of the eternal nature . . 41, 44 1. The two first forms, sour and bitter, are the original of every thing, and the eternal will is the mother of them 28 2. How the two first forms hold the centre ... 20
32. How the two forms without the other are in great anguish . 21 CHAP. Form. Forms. VERSE 2. Further of the working of the four forms ... 47 2. The author will shew the three other heavenly forms that are generated out of the first four forms . . 65 5 . A mention of the seven forms 15 14. A mention of the four forms that contain the original of nature 31 Forsaken. 17. He that letteth go what will not willingly stay, will not b e forsaken o f God 28 Fruit. 18. Man is a root in the field of God: What fruit belongeth to God's table, and what to the wrathful mother 52 18. As a. fruit groweth, so it tasteth .... 53 Furious. 18. How can one, furious person appease another furious person? 45 Garden. 11. How we walk under the fig-tree in the garden of roses 112 Generator. Genetrix. 2. Wherefore the generator of the Word is called Father 88 1. The genetrix is a darkness: The birth of the eternal being 35 2. The ground of the genetrix, and circle of life . . 1 2. How all is generated out of the genetrix. Of the eternal Word, and of the name God ... 6 4. Of the properties in the genetrix, or the eternal mother 35 11. Mention concerning the Being of all Beings. Of the genetrix, and o f the three kingdoms ... 1 13. How the mother, the genetrix, desireth to generate a young son in her old age 53 16. How the genetrix of the anger of God, and the genetrix of the outward nature, are working in this outward life 90 Gifts.
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.
116. How the Father entertaineth the lost son ... 23 17. How we go to our true Father, and become his children 1 Fiat. 7. How the water is become material. The working of the Fiat 71 9. How the spirit of God driveth the Fiat . . .115 Figure. 5. When God shall be manifested, the figure of every thing remaineth eternally 122 5. The beasts after the Last Day get no bodies more, but the figure of the elementary substance remaineth .131 9. Why the figure of all kinds of creatures must remain in eternity 6 0 9. How God hath manifested himself in a figurative form i n the great wonders o f God 62 10. How the figure of the will standeth in the desire: Also of the creation 12 18. The image hath stood from eternity, as a figure in a dream 18 Fire. 2. A recital of the original of the fire .... 69 4. Of the fire of the liberty: How death affordeth weight: How the anguish becometh material ... 14 4. Without fire there is no body that hath any feeling . 15 5. Of the original of the fire, and of the air or wind . 103 5. How the property of the water holdeth the fire captive 104 7. The eternal nature, and the eternal liberty, are represented by fire 65 7. How the matrix of the water holdeth the fire captive 70 8. How the fire devoureth the substantiality ... 33 CHAP. Fire. VERSE 8. How the substantiality flieth out from the fire again . 34 8. Of the twofold/ire 41 9. A description of the eighth number, viz. the fire . 90
210. The author sheweth us the Mysterium Magnum. The fire is the eighth number. Also a description of the fire 27 10. The most inward tincture is the ninth number; the tenth number is the eternal fire of God; with a wonderful description of it 28 11. What fire that is which will melt away the stones and earth 16 11. How all must pass through the fire, and the floor must be purged 28 14. How the soul must pass through the fire, viz. the eighth form, or the law of Moses .... 52 Flash. 2. The flash is free from nature 25 2 . The, flash i s the third form 28 Flesh. 11. We are all one flesh, soul, and spirit .... 68 11. How the flesh that in Adam became earth, became heaven again .70 11. How Christ's soul and flesh is our soul and flesh: Also how we live in Christ . . . . 71 Form. Forms. 2. Harsh, sour, tart, stern, fierce attraction, is the first form 32 2 . Bitter sting is the second form 33 2. The flash of liberty is the third form .... 34 2. What maketh the third form in nature ... 35 2. What is called the fourth form in nature ... 36 2. How the fifth form riseth up 73 2. How the fifth form is the true original of life . . 74 3. How the sixth form in nature is generated. . . 13 3. Of the seventh form of the eternal nature . . 41, 44 1. The two first forms, sour and bitter, are the original of every thing, and the eternal will is the mother of them 28 2. How the two first forms hold the centre ... 20
32. How the two forms without the other are in great anguish . 21 CHAP. Form. Forms. VERSE 2. Further of the working of the four forms ... 47 2. The author will shew the three other heavenly forms that are generated out of the first four forms . . 65 5 . A mention of the seven forms 15 14. A mention of the four forms that contain the original of nature 31 Forsaken. 17. He that letteth go what will not willingly stay, will not b e forsaken o f God 28 Fruit. 18. Man is a root in the field of God: What fruit belongeth to God's table, and what to the wrathful mother 52 18. As a. fruit groweth, so it tasteth .... 53 Furious. 18. How can one, furious person appease another furious person? 45 Garden. 11. How we walk under the fig-tree in the garden of roses 112 Generator. Genetrix. 2. Wherefore the generator of the Word is called Father 88 1. The genetrix is a darkness: The birth of the eternal being 35 2. The ground of the genetrix, and circle of life . . 1 2. How all is generated out of the genetrix. Of the eternal Word, and of the name God ... 6 4. Of the properties in the genetrix, or the eternal mother 35 11. Mention concerning the Being of all Beings. Of the genetrix, and o f the three kingdoms ... 1 13. How the mother, the genetrix, desireth to generate a young son in her old age 53 16. How the genetrix of the anger of God, and the genetrix of the outward nature, are working in this outward life 90 Gifts.
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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