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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.
14. The spirits are created every one according to its kind 37 4. Of the spirits that have their original out of the inceptive will 54 4. Out of what the earthly and watery spirits are . . 55 4. The spirits are incomprehensible to us. The author will shew us the government of heaven further, and then the government of man .... 57 5. When it is that the six spirits shall be known . . 47 5. When the hidden spirits go into the ether: Also of the time when the seventh seal taketh its beginning, known by the author 48 5. How the spirits of darkness He captive . . .110 10. How the creating of the spirits was .... 16 14. Of the six spirits of nature: Also of the original of mobility 27 Star. Stars. 7. How every star hath a several property ... 74 3. The Word is in the Father, and hath the seven stars or forms in its power 47 3. We are under the power of the seven stars, or seven spirits of the Father's nature .... 48 5. How the image of the Wisdom of God hath the seven stars 43 6. Out of what the stars are: Also why they are to us innumerable 41 7. If the stars and elements had not been created, the ground of nature had not been manifested to the angels 25 7. Out of what the stars are, and their property . . 72 7. The cause of the burning of the stars: Also how they awaken all creatures 73 9. Of the tincture's number six, and of the spirit's number six; which together make twelve in number; or the stars which the Woman in the Revelation weareth 73
210. How the stars are children of the sun: Very great things are to be concealed here .... 17 10. How God on the Fourth Day created the sun and the stars 19 11. Of the working of the stars in the creatures, to the manifestation of the wonders of God ... 35 11. How the soul can subdue the power of the stars, which indeed would fain be delivered from vanity . 38 CHAP. Sting. VERSE 2. The sour harshness is the mother of the sting or goad: Also how in the liberty it becometh joyful, and how the fifth form riseth up 73 Stone. 6. The eternal flesh is the noble Philosopher's Stone, which the Magi find 98 6. There is nothing like the Philosopher's Stone: It is manifest, and also hidden 99 6. Of the excellence of the Stone 100 6. The great joy which he hath that findeth the Stone 101 6. This Stone is the slightest and most contemptible . 102 6. The power of those that have this Stone: They who rightly seek it, find it; others scorn it . . 1 03 7. What help the soul getteth in its earnestness: Also how little knowledge is necessary for the attaining o f the Corner-Stone 9 7. The Noble Stone is to be found every where . . 14 7. How Isaac, Jacob, and David, found the Noble Stone, Christ 36 7. How Moses and Elijah had the Noble Stone . . 38 7. How all the prophets prophesied and wrought miracles by the power of this Stone 39 7. The Stone of the wise men is Christ the Son of the living God 40
37. The worldly-wise schools have always persecuted the Stone . . 41 7. What the Stone of the worldly-wise is ... 42 7. How we are led astray at this day by the devil, and lose the Noble Stone 49 7. The distinction between those that have the Stone, and those that have the subtlety of the serpent . . 52 7. They that have the Stone, know the false Magi or whore 56 9. How the world longed after man. The Stone was known in Solomon's time 7 9. In what way it is not hard to find the Stone . . 8 10. How the true Magi shall find the Noble Stone . . 4 10. At the end of nature lieth the incorruptible Stone 5 10. How the Stone is to be sought i n metals ... 6 13. What lieth hid in this Stone, which is the eternal Son of God 1 CHAP. Strife. VERSE 2. Of the strife between the fierceness and meekness . 93 7. Of the vehement strife of the anger of God . . 44 8. Of the strife of the tincture against the fire . . 32 8. The strife between the fire and the substantiality . 35 13. One will alone is without strife: in two wills there is discord 45 13. Whence strife ariseth, one seeking to subdue another; also of a thing's own prophet, that is born in the highest number of the crown .... 46 13. How the prophet sheweth the crown out of which the strife and malice ariseth 48 14. The cause of strife about the soul of man is because there are two dominions in man .... 68
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.
14. The spirits are created every one according to its kind 37 4. Of the spirits that have their original out of the inceptive will 54 4. Out of what the earthly and watery spirits are . . 55 4. The spirits are incomprehensible to us. The author will shew us the government of heaven further, and then the government of man .... 57 5. When it is that the six spirits shall be known . . 47 5. When the hidden spirits go into the ether: Also of the time when the seventh seal taketh its beginning, known by the author 48 5. How the spirits of darkness He captive . . .110 10. How the creating of the spirits was .... 16 14. Of the six spirits of nature: Also of the original of mobility 27 Star. Stars. 7. How every star hath a several property ... 74 3. The Word is in the Father, and hath the seven stars or forms in its power 47 3. We are under the power of the seven stars, or seven spirits of the Father's nature .... 48 5. How the image of the Wisdom of God hath the seven stars 43 6. Out of what the stars are: Also why they are to us innumerable 41 7. If the stars and elements had not been created, the ground of nature had not been manifested to the angels 25 7. Out of what the stars are, and their property . . 72 7. The cause of the burning of the stars: Also how they awaken all creatures 73 9. Of the tincture's number six, and of the spirit's number six; which together make twelve in number; or the stars which the Woman in the Revelation weareth 73
210. How the stars are children of the sun: Very great things are to be concealed here .... 17 10. How God on the Fourth Day created the sun and the stars 19 11. Of the working of the stars in the creatures, to the manifestation of the wonders of God ... 35 11. How the soul can subdue the power of the stars, which indeed would fain be delivered from vanity . 38 CHAP. Sting. VERSE 2. The sour harshness is the mother of the sting or goad: Also how in the liberty it becometh joyful, and how the fifth form riseth up 73 Stone. 6. The eternal flesh is the noble Philosopher's Stone, which the Magi find 98 6. There is nothing like the Philosopher's Stone: It is manifest, and also hidden 99 6. Of the excellence of the Stone 100 6. The great joy which he hath that findeth the Stone 101 6. This Stone is the slightest and most contemptible . 102 6. The power of those that have this Stone: They who rightly seek it, find it; others scorn it . . 1 03 7. What help the soul getteth in its earnestness: Also how little knowledge is necessary for the attaining o f the Corner-Stone 9 7. The Noble Stone is to be found every where . . 14 7. How Isaac, Jacob, and David, found the Noble Stone, Christ 36 7. How Moses and Elijah had the Noble Stone . . 38 7. How all the prophets prophesied and wrought miracles by the power of this Stone 39 7. The Stone of the wise men is Christ the Son of the living God 40
37. The worldly-wise schools have always persecuted the Stone . . 41 7. What the Stone of the worldly-wise is ... 42 7. How we are led astray at this day by the devil, and lose the Noble Stone 49 7. The distinction between those that have the Stone, and those that have the subtlety of the serpent . . 52 7. They that have the Stone, know the false Magi or whore 56 9. How the world longed after man. The Stone was known in Solomon's time 7 9. In what way it is not hard to find the Stone . . 8 10. How the true Magi shall find the Noble Stone . . 4 10. At the end of nature lieth the incorruptible Stone 5 10. How the Stone is to be sought i n metals ... 6 13. What lieth hid in this Stone, which is the eternal Son of God 1 CHAP. Strife. VERSE 2. Of the strife between the fierceness and meekness . 93 7. Of the vehement strife of the anger of God . . 44 8. Of the strife of the tincture against the fire . . 32 8. The strife between the fire and the substantiality . 35 13. One will alone is without strife: in two wills there is discord 45 13. Whence strife ariseth, one seeking to subdue another; also of a thing's own prophet, that is born in the highest number of the crown .... 46 13. How the prophet sheweth the crown out of which the strife and malice ariseth 48 14. The cause of strife about the soul of man is because there are two dominions in man .... 68
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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