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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.
1bright out of the Father's nature; for they [the seven seals] were in the hand of the Son of God, who was become man: as may be discerned by the Image in the Revelation, that the man Jesus Christ hath seven stars in his hand, and standeth between the seven golden candlesticks. 43. The seven stars are the seven spirits of God the Father, which are hidden seals; as I have shewn you before, how one form is continually generated from another; and that one form would not be without the other; and yet one seal openeth itself after another, and they have the seven thunders, whose speech is sealed up, for they are in the centre of the spirit, but the seven seals are in the essence [or in the centre of the corporeity] : for they are manifested through the humanity of Christ, therefore the spirit of God demonstrated them in the form of seven golden candlesticks, and they give light in the Father out of the centre o the Son. 44. For you see, that there is a Glassy Sea before the throne of the Ancient [of Days], who is God the Father, and the sea is the seventh seal, but opened and not sealed; for therein standeth the angelical world: but the six seals are the birth of the eternal nature, which are generated in the first will of the Father, out of which the Heart or Word of God is from eternity continually generated, as a peculiar centre of its own, in the centre of the seven spirits of God; and although the seventh seal also is in the Father,
2and belongeth to the centre, yet it is brought to essence [being or substance] by the Word, for therein consisteth the angelical world. 45. Therefore, my beloved Reader, thou art to know, that whatsoever is written or spoken of God, is spirit; for God is Spirit, but in himself would not be manifest, except the seven forms make him manifest: and therein the creation of the angelical world is brought to pass, and is called Ternarius Sanctus: for the number Three [or Trinity] is incomprehensible; but the Word maketh the glassy sea, wherein the comprehensibility is understood: and it is clearly represented to you, in the figure of the Image, in the Revelations. 46. For you see, that the Image standeth in the midst of the seven candlesticks, which are the seven spirits of the Deity; and it hath seven stars in its right hand, which are also the seven spirits of the Deity, in the centre of the Father, and the Word hath them in his power, in that it changeth the fierceness and consuming nature into a meek habitation in the glassy sea, wherein God's light of the Word shineth out of the Word: and then the seven spirits of God stand in the centre of the Word, in form like unto seven burning torches: and hereby the Deity is pourtrayed unto you, in the Image in the Revelations. 47. And we give you also to understand further
3(as is mentioned above) that the Word (or Heart of the Father) in its seven shining spirits, is in the Father (in the centre of the Father) as his Heart; and hath the seven stars (viz. the seven forms of the eternal nature) under its power, and therefore the image hath them in its hand. 48. But since all things (that should come to have an essence) must come forth out of the Father's nature, and we know also that Moses witnesseth as much, that God the Father made all things by the Word Fiat, as by the Word spoken, and the speaking stood in the Fiat; and the Fiat is the sour matrix in the first will of the Father, which comprehendeth and holdeth the nature, which the spirit (that is generated ex Mercurio) formeth, which is the spirit of God: And since all creatures stand in the Father, and that he is therefore called Father, being a father of everything; as also we men are his children; and yet we with Adam, being departed from the virtue of the seventh spirit of the Word, and with our imagination are gone into the out-birth of the Father, viz. into the spirit of this world, which clothes us with corruptible flesh and blood, and holdeth us captive; therefore we are now in the virtue or power of the seven stars, or seven spirits, of the Father's nature, which bring their wonders in us to the light. 49. For we are the representation [image, similitude] of the Deity, in which the spirit of God openeth his wonders:
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.
1bright out of the Father's nature; for they [the seven seals] were in the hand of the Son of God, who was become man: as may be discerned by the Image in the Revelation, that the man Jesus Christ hath seven stars in his hand, and standeth between the seven golden candlesticks. 43. The seven stars are the seven spirits of God the Father, which are hidden seals; as I have shewn you before, how one form is continually generated from another; and that one form would not be without the other; and yet one seal openeth itself after another, and they have the seven thunders, whose speech is sealed up, for they are in the centre of the spirit, but the seven seals are in the essence [or in the centre of the corporeity] : for they are manifested through the humanity of Christ, therefore the spirit of God demonstrated them in the form of seven golden candlesticks, and they give light in the Father out of the centre o the Son. 44. For you see, that there is a Glassy Sea before the throne of the Ancient [of Days], who is God the Father, and the sea is the seventh seal, but opened and not sealed; for therein standeth the angelical world: but the six seals are the birth of the eternal nature, which are generated in the first will of the Father, out of which the Heart or Word of God is from eternity continually generated, as a peculiar centre of its own, in the centre of the seven spirits of God; and although the seventh seal also is in the Father,
2and belongeth to the centre, yet it is brought to essence [being or substance] by the Word, for therein consisteth the angelical world. 45. Therefore, my beloved Reader, thou art to know, that whatsoever is written or spoken of God, is spirit; for God is Spirit, but in himself would not be manifest, except the seven forms make him manifest: and therein the creation of the angelical world is brought to pass, and is called Ternarius Sanctus: for the number Three [or Trinity] is incomprehensible; but the Word maketh the glassy sea, wherein the comprehensibility is understood: and it is clearly represented to you, in the figure of the Image, in the Revelations. 46. For you see, that the Image standeth in the midst of the seven candlesticks, which are the seven spirits of the Deity; and it hath seven stars in its right hand, which are also the seven spirits of the Deity, in the centre of the Father, and the Word hath them in his power, in that it changeth the fierceness and consuming nature into a meek habitation in the glassy sea, wherein God's light of the Word shineth out of the Word: and then the seven spirits of God stand in the centre of the Word, in form like unto seven burning torches: and hereby the Deity is pourtrayed unto you, in the Image in the Revelations. 47. And we give you also to understand further
3(as is mentioned above) that the Word (or Heart of the Father) in its seven shining spirits, is in the Father (in the centre of the Father) as his Heart; and hath the seven stars (viz. the seven forms of the eternal nature) under its power, and therefore the image hath them in its hand. 48. But since all things (that should come to have an essence) must come forth out of the Father's nature, and we know also that Moses witnesseth as much, that God the Father made all things by the Word Fiat, as by the Word spoken, and the speaking stood in the Fiat; and the Fiat is the sour matrix in the first will of the Father, which comprehendeth and holdeth the nature, which the spirit (that is generated ex Mercurio) formeth, which is the spirit of God: And since all creatures stand in the Father, and that he is therefore called Father, being a father of everything; as also we men are his children; and yet we with Adam, being departed from the virtue of the seventh spirit of the Word, and with our imagination are gone into the out-birth of the Father, viz. into the spirit of this world, which clothes us with corruptible flesh and blood, and holdeth us captive; therefore we are now in the virtue or power of the seven stars, or seven spirits, of the Father's nature, which bring their wonders in us to the light. 49. For we are the representation [image, similitude] of the Deity, in which the spirit of God openeth his wonders:
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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