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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.
1to substance and act [work], [or effect,] as a building to [the manifestation of] God's works of wonder. 48. And when this shall be accomplished, then the hidden spirits of God (under the seals) enter again into the ether, viz. into their centre: and then the time of the seventh seal beginneth, in the substantiality, in the presence of God, and the hidden Mystery of the kingdom of God is accomplished, as is mentioned in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and as we have known in Ternario sancto, [in the Holy Ternary]. 49. This wisdom of God (which is the virgin of glory and beauteous ornament, and an image of the Number Three) is (in her figure) an image, like angels and men, and she taketh her original in the centre on the cross, like a blossom of a branch, out of the spirit of God. 50. For she is the substantiality of the spirit, which the spirit of God putteth on as a garment, whereby he manifesteth himself, or else his form would not be known: for she is the spirit's corporeity, and though she is not a corporeal palpable substance, like us men, yet she is substantial and visible; but the spirit is not substantial. 51. For we men can, in eternity, see no more of the spirit of God, but only the glance of the Majesty: and his glorious power we feel in us, for it is our life, and conducteth us.
252. But we know the virgin in all her heavenly similitudes or images; whereas she giveth a body to all fruits, she is not the corporeity of the fruit, but the ornament and lustre. 53. The corporeity goeth forth out of the substantiality, which is not the spirit, but an impotency, in comparison with the spirit, in which the Number Three dwelleth; and that substantiality is the element of God, for there is a life therein, (but without understanding), in which the paradise of God consisteth; for the seven spirits of God work therein, and it is as a growing [or vegetation] ; and herein consist the great wonders of God, according to all essences infinitely. 54. For every form of the essences bringeth forth its fruit, which by the wrestling of the wheel attaineth its highest ornament and power, and yet passeth away as being overcome, for all is herein as a wrestling, where one is now uppermost and mighty, and then is overcome again, and another riseth up which hath other essences: and so it is a holy sport, a joy or fruit of angels, a fulfilling of the will of every life. 55. Here again we need an angel's tongue; for the mind ever asketh; How and where 1 ? For when the deep is spoken of, which is without comprehension and number, [or measure], the mind always understandeth some corporeal thing.
356. But when I speak of the virgin of the wisdom of God, I mean not a thing, that is [confined, or circumscribed] in a place; as also when I speak of the Number Three; but I mean the whole deep of the Deity without end and number [or measure] . 57. But every divine creature (as are the angels and souls of men) hath the virgin of the wisdom of God, as an image in the light of life; understand, in the substantiality of the spirit, wherein is the Number Three, dwelling in itself. 58. For we comprehend (before us) the Number Three in the image, viz. in the virgin of the wisdom of God; understand, without our person [externally], we see only the Majesty of the Deity, for the creature comprehendeth not the Number Three, in the appearance to the eye; but the spirit of the soul (which standeth in the divine centre) seeth it, but not perfectly. 59. For the spirit of a soul is out of one form of nature, and yet can bring forth in itself all forms of nature. Seeing then there is nothing whole [total] and perfect, but only the Number Three [or the Trinity], therefore other [things] are several [various, distinct, different], [or divided], as there are various sorts of angels [of different qualities and properties]. 60. And so the essences of the centre in God, [as to, or] with the angelical spirits, stand all in the wonder, and God is manifested in a creaturely form, by the angelical world; for they are all out of the Being of God.
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.
1to substance and act [work], [or effect,] as a building to [the manifestation of] God's works of wonder. 48. And when this shall be accomplished, then the hidden spirits of God (under the seals) enter again into the ether, viz. into their centre: and then the time of the seventh seal beginneth, in the substantiality, in the presence of God, and the hidden Mystery of the kingdom of God is accomplished, as is mentioned in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and as we have known in Ternario sancto, [in the Holy Ternary]. 49. This wisdom of God (which is the virgin of glory and beauteous ornament, and an image of the Number Three) is (in her figure) an image, like angels and men, and she taketh her original in the centre on the cross, like a blossom of a branch, out of the spirit of God. 50. For she is the substantiality of the spirit, which the spirit of God putteth on as a garment, whereby he manifesteth himself, or else his form would not be known: for she is the spirit's corporeity, and though she is not a corporeal palpable substance, like us men, yet she is substantial and visible; but the spirit is not substantial. 51. For we men can, in eternity, see no more of the spirit of God, but only the glance of the Majesty: and his glorious power we feel in us, for it is our life, and conducteth us.
252. But we know the virgin in all her heavenly similitudes or images; whereas she giveth a body to all fruits, she is not the corporeity of the fruit, but the ornament and lustre. 53. The corporeity goeth forth out of the substantiality, which is not the spirit, but an impotency, in comparison with the spirit, in which the Number Three dwelleth; and that substantiality is the element of God, for there is a life therein, (but without understanding), in which the paradise of God consisteth; for the seven spirits of God work therein, and it is as a growing [or vegetation] ; and herein consist the great wonders of God, according to all essences infinitely. 54. For every form of the essences bringeth forth its fruit, which by the wrestling of the wheel attaineth its highest ornament and power, and yet passeth away as being overcome, for all is herein as a wrestling, where one is now uppermost and mighty, and then is overcome again, and another riseth up which hath other essences: and so it is a holy sport, a joy or fruit of angels, a fulfilling of the will of every life. 55. Here again we need an angel's tongue; for the mind ever asketh; How and where 1 ? For when the deep is spoken of, which is without comprehension and number, [or measure], the mind always understandeth some corporeal thing.
356. But when I speak of the virgin of the wisdom of God, I mean not a thing, that is [confined, or circumscribed] in a place; as also when I speak of the Number Three; but I mean the whole deep of the Deity without end and number [or measure] . 57. But every divine creature (as are the angels and souls of men) hath the virgin of the wisdom of God, as an image in the light of life; understand, in the substantiality of the spirit, wherein is the Number Three, dwelling in itself. 58. For we comprehend (before us) the Number Three in the image, viz. in the virgin of the wisdom of God; understand, without our person [externally], we see only the Majesty of the Deity, for the creature comprehendeth not the Number Three, in the appearance to the eye; but the spirit of the soul (which standeth in the divine centre) seeth it, but not perfectly. 59. For the spirit of a soul is out of one form of nature, and yet can bring forth in itself all forms of nature. Seeing then there is nothing whole [total] and perfect, but only the Number Three [or the Trinity], therefore other [things] are several [various, distinct, different], [or divided], as there are various sorts of angels [of different qualities and properties]. 60. And so the essences of the centre in God, [as to, or] with the angelical spirits, stand all in the wonder, and God is manifested in a creaturely form, by the angelical world; for they are all out of the Being of God.
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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