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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.
13. Of the voice of the seven thunders: They are not manifested in the centre of the son ... 53 5. What the corporeity of the divine nature is: Also how the seven thunders shall he opened one after another 12 Time. 4. How the wheel of the eternal essences moved before the time of the Fiat: Also of the beginning of time 32 15. The mother of nature complaineth of her children, and the time shall be shortened .... 2 15. Admonition that the present day is the time of repenting 25 Tincture. Tinctures. 4. That there is another will born that attaineth the liberty in the fire, and is called the tincture . . 17 4. The second will, or the tincture, is the lustre in the darkness, and the ornament of the essences, and blossom o f life 18 4. Why the power of the tincture is hidden from the alchemists 23 4. The tincture is the light of the earth: The sun is the life of the whole wheel 27 4. The tincture of the kind joy shone also out of the fallen angels . 39 4. The tincture in the will of the devils is become false; they would domineer over the Son of God . . 43 8. How the tincture is a creature, and wrestleth with the fire 56 8. How the lustre is still, and the tincture moveable and living, and the deepest ground of heaven . . 57 9. Wherein the noble tincture consisteth: How every life standeth in the hand of God: How the spirit would be in hell-fire 52 9. Of the separation of the two tinctures, of the fire-life, and the air-life 53
213. How without the Verbum Domini both the tinctures had remained captivated by the devil, in the anger of God, and in the spirit of this world ... 35 Tongue. 5. What the tongue signifieth or denoteth . . . 107 CHAP. Trade. VERSE 17. Every trade and business is in the ordinance of God . 12 Treasure. 17. What treasure the virtuous gather, and what treasure the covetous gather 27 17. Every trade and business is in the ordinance of God . 12 Treasure. 17. What treasure the virtuous gather, and what treasure the covetous gather 27 Tree. Trees. 7. Out of what the tree of Good and Evil in paradise grew 47 13. A speech to the great and wide tree, the generation of Adam 52 14. How the small grain of mustard seed becometh a great tree 44 17. Why God did forbid man to eat of the tree; also of his state before and after the Fall .... 10 9. How the paradisical forms were known on the trees. All our fruits are good and evil 14 9. Our fruits upon the trees grow not of themselves . 15 Trial. 14. The author cannot write nor express what joy the soul hath, after it hath passed through the trial . . 54 Trinity. 3. What the Number Three or Trinity is ... 12 5. How that which is spoken forth is an image of the Holy Trinity 41 5. Where the Number Three or Trinity dwelleth . . 57 5. The spirit of the soul, but not the light of the eyes, comprehendeth the Trinity 58 5. There is nothing perfect, but the Number Three, or Trinity 59
316. What the Trinity is from eternity to eternity . . 104 Turba. 13. How the turba destroyeth the multiplicity, from whence it is that envy and falsehood proceed . 49 13. How the turba exerciseth itself in the anger; also of the springing up of the blossom of life ... 60 Turk. Turks. 6. How a Turk attaineth God, together with the children that are without understanding .... 21 CHAP. Turk. Turks. VERSE 6. The Turks say, no. He that honoureth the Father, honoureth the Son 28 11. The cause of the Turks' potency; also how long their blindness shall continue 91 11. The Antichrist shall not devour the tree of the Turks with his dragon's mouth, or tyrannous policy; also what it is the Antichrist shall be destroyed by . 92 11. How the Turks are become a wild tree ... 94 Vanity. 15. Vanity and wantonness is the first lesson youths learn 7 Vials. 5. In the courts of princes the vials of anger are poured forth through the instigation of the hypocrites . 66 Virgin. 6. How the eternal Virgin came into substance . . 80 6. The Word is the understanding in the eternal Virgin . 82 6. Neither the Virgin nor the flesh do operate, but the spirit 83 11. Of the eternal Virgin, out of which the matrix of the earth became an image 12 13. How our corrupted substance became earthly; and how God in the heavenly Virgin, and also in the earthly Virgin, became man 19 Understand. 3. They that are born of God, shall understand this . 37
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.
13. Of the voice of the seven thunders: They are not manifested in the centre of the son ... 53 5. What the corporeity of the divine nature is: Also how the seven thunders shall he opened one after another 12 Time. 4. How the wheel of the eternal essences moved before the time of the Fiat: Also of the beginning of time 32 15. The mother of nature complaineth of her children, and the time shall be shortened .... 2 15. Admonition that the present day is the time of repenting 25 Tincture. Tinctures. 4. That there is another will born that attaineth the liberty in the fire, and is called the tincture . . 17 4. The second will, or the tincture, is the lustre in the darkness, and the ornament of the essences, and blossom o f life 18 4. Why the power of the tincture is hidden from the alchemists 23 4. The tincture is the light of the earth: The sun is the life of the whole wheel 27 4. The tincture of the kind joy shone also out of the fallen angels . 39 4. The tincture in the will of the devils is become false; they would domineer over the Son of God . . 43 8. How the tincture is a creature, and wrestleth with the fire 56 8. How the lustre is still, and the tincture moveable and living, and the deepest ground of heaven . . 57 9. Wherein the noble tincture consisteth: How every life standeth in the hand of God: How the spirit would be in hell-fire 52 9. Of the separation of the two tinctures, of the fire-life, and the air-life 53
213. How without the Verbum Domini both the tinctures had remained captivated by the devil, in the anger of God, and in the spirit of this world ... 35 Tongue. 5. What the tongue signifieth or denoteth . . . 107 CHAP. Trade. VERSE 17. Every trade and business is in the ordinance of God . 12 Treasure. 17. What treasure the virtuous gather, and what treasure the covetous gather 27 17. Every trade and business is in the ordinance of God . 12 Treasure. 17. What treasure the virtuous gather, and what treasure the covetous gather 27 Tree. Trees. 7. Out of what the tree of Good and Evil in paradise grew 47 13. A speech to the great and wide tree, the generation of Adam 52 14. How the small grain of mustard seed becometh a great tree 44 17. Why God did forbid man to eat of the tree; also of his state before and after the Fall .... 10 9. How the paradisical forms were known on the trees. All our fruits are good and evil 14 9. Our fruits upon the trees grow not of themselves . 15 Trial. 14. The author cannot write nor express what joy the soul hath, after it hath passed through the trial . . 54 Trinity. 3. What the Number Three or Trinity is ... 12 5. How that which is spoken forth is an image of the Holy Trinity 41 5. Where the Number Three or Trinity dwelleth . . 57 5. The spirit of the soul, but not the light of the eyes, comprehendeth the Trinity 58 5. There is nothing perfect, but the Number Three, or Trinity 59
316. What the Trinity is from eternity to eternity . . 104 Turba. 13. How the turba destroyeth the multiplicity, from whence it is that envy and falsehood proceed . 49 13. How the turba exerciseth itself in the anger; also of the springing up of the blossom of life ... 60 Turk. Turks. 6. How a Turk attaineth God, together with the children that are without understanding .... 21 CHAP. Turk. Turks. VERSE 6. The Turks say, no. He that honoureth the Father, honoureth the Son 28 11. The cause of the Turks' potency; also how long their blindness shall continue 91 11. The Antichrist shall not devour the tree of the Turks with his dragon's mouth, or tyrannous policy; also what it is the Antichrist shall be destroyed by . 92 11. How the Turks are become a wild tree ... 94 Vanity. 15. Vanity and wantonness is the first lesson youths learn 7 Vials. 5. In the courts of princes the vials of anger are poured forth through the instigation of the hypocrites . 66 Virgin. 6. How the eternal Virgin came into substance . . 80 6. The Word is the understanding in the eternal Virgin . 82 6. Neither the Virgin nor the flesh do operate, but the spirit 83 11. Of the eternal Virgin, out of which the matrix of the earth became an image 12 13. How our corrupted substance became earthly; and how God in the heavenly Virgin, and also in the earthly Virgin, became man 19 Understand. 3. They that are born of God, shall understand this . 37
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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