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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.
1The Forty Questions of the Soul By Jacob Boehme Translated by John Sparrow Reissued by C. J. B. With Emendations by D. S. Hehner LONDON JOHN M. WATKINS 21 CECIL COURT, CHARING CROSS ROAD 19 11 Electronic text version, april, 2010, by meuser.awardspace.com Previous Editions FORTY QUESTIONS 1632. Latin Amstelodami. Sm. 8vo. 1637. Dutch (Appendix only) [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1642. Dutch [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1647. English London. 4to. 1648. German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1663. German Amsterdam. 8vo. 1665. English [London] . 12mo. 1676. German (Appendix only) Amsterdam. 12mo. 1682. German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1715. German [Hamburg]. 4to. 1730. German [Amsterdam] . 8vo. 1764. English London. La. 4to. 1807. French Paris. 8vo. 1846. German Leipzig. 8vo. CLAVIS 1642. Dutch [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1647. English [London]. 4to. 1662. German Amsterdam. 8vo. 1675. German Amsterdam and Franckfurt am Mayn. 4to. 1682 . German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1698. German Amsterdam and Franckfurt. 4to. 1715. German [Hamburg]. 4to. 1730. German [Amsterdam] . 8vo. 1764. English London. La. 4to. 1826. French Paris. 8vo. 1846. German Leipzig. 8vo. 1910. French Paris. 8vo. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF LOUISA SARAH COOK "I highly thank you for your present which I have received, and I shall, for its recompense, carry it in my will into the Mystery of the Most High: and it shall be received as a treasure for you; and I acknowledge hereby your true open heart. " PREFATORY NOTE
2THE Forty Questions and The Clavis (see archive.org) were the first of Bohme's works published in English by John Sparrow. They appeared together in one volume, quarto, 17" 7 cm. x 13" 7 cm., in the year 1647. The few copies of this volume that have come down to the present day are not exactly identical: they exhibit two different title-pages; one is as here reprinted; the other, with the same wording, but not the same type through-out, has the imprint "London, Printed by Matth. Simmons, in the yeare 1647." In the copies exhibiting the latter title-page, also, the piece "To the Earnest Lovers of Wisdom" is not included, so far as I am aware. Otherwise all the copies are exactly ahke. In 1665 Sparrow published a new edition, a duodecimo, 13 "5 cm. x 8"2 cm. This translation differs slightly from the former one, and, strange to say, the 1647 version is, on the whole, the better of the two. In the present reprint the 1647 edition has been followed very closely. Occasionally words from the 1665 edition have been preferred; and in three places whole paragraphs have been adopted from it (Ques. 1, pars. 26-27, 158-161; Ques. 8, par 8); not on account of the superiority of the translation, but because the symbols accompanying these paragraphs do not appear in the earlier edition. In these instances I have followed the example of George Ward, the editor of the 18thcentury reprint, usually known as "Law's edition," of the Forty Questions.
3The title-page of the 1665 edition runs as follows: " Forty Questions I of the I SOUL | concerning its I Original, Essence, Substance, Na- | ture or Quality, and Property, I what it is, from Eternity to Eternity. I Framed by a Lover of the Great Mysteries I DOCTOR BALTHASAB WALTER, I and Answered in the Year, 1620. I by I JACOB BEHME | called I Teutonicus Philosophus. I Englished by John Sparrow. I In the first Question is contained, an Ex- I plantation, of the Philosophick Globe, or Won- | der-Eye of Eternity, or Looking-Glass of I Wisdom, being ONE half Light or Dark Glob I or half Eye with a Rainbow about it, parted, I with the Halves reversed, A Cross, and Heart, I appearing in the Centre, with the Abyss every | where, within it, and without it, in Infinity, I being all ... . LookingGlass. I Printed for L. Lloyd, at the Castle in Cornhil, 1665." In the space between the words "all" and "Looking-Glass" is a small figure, " 9 cm. high, of six semicircular lines, in two pairs, back to back, with cross hnes through the centre. The preliminary matter, by the translator, is the same as the 1647 edition, bearing Blunden's imprint, with the following additions: "Concerning the author, I have now published the brief translation of his life, written in High- Dutch by Abraham van Franckenberg, who was long his acquaintance, and continued so till his death. The Relation is as followeth:
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.
1The Forty Questions of the Soul By Jacob Boehme Translated by John Sparrow Reissued by C. J. B. With Emendations by D. S. Hehner LONDON JOHN M. WATKINS 21 CECIL COURT, CHARING CROSS ROAD 19 11 Electronic text version, april, 2010, by meuser.awardspace.com Previous Editions FORTY QUESTIONS 1632. Latin Amstelodami. Sm. 8vo. 1637. Dutch (Appendix only) [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1642. Dutch [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1647. English London. 4to. 1648. German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1663. German Amsterdam. 8vo. 1665. English [London] . 12mo. 1676. German (Appendix only) Amsterdam. 12mo. 1682. German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1715. German [Hamburg]. 4to. 1730. German [Amsterdam] . 8vo. 1764. English London. La. 4to. 1807. French Paris. 8vo. 1846. German Leipzig. 8vo. CLAVIS 1642. Dutch [Amsterdam]. 4to. 1647. English [London]. 4to. 1662. German Amsterdam. 8vo. 1675. German Amsterdam and Franckfurt am Mayn. 4to. 1682 . German Amsterdam. 12mo. 1698. German Amsterdam and Franckfurt. 4to. 1715. German [Hamburg]. 4to. 1730. German [Amsterdam] . 8vo. 1764. English London. La. 4to. 1826. French Paris. 8vo. 1846. German Leipzig. 8vo. 1910. French Paris. 8vo. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF LOUISA SARAH COOK "I highly thank you for your present which I have received, and I shall, for its recompense, carry it in my will into the Mystery of the Most High: and it shall be received as a treasure for you; and I acknowledge hereby your true open heart. " PREFATORY NOTE
2THE Forty Questions and The Clavis (see archive.org) were the first of Bohme's works published in English by John Sparrow. They appeared together in one volume, quarto, 17" 7 cm. x 13" 7 cm., in the year 1647. The few copies of this volume that have come down to the present day are not exactly identical: they exhibit two different title-pages; one is as here reprinted; the other, with the same wording, but not the same type through-out, has the imprint "London, Printed by Matth. Simmons, in the yeare 1647." In the copies exhibiting the latter title-page, also, the piece "To the Earnest Lovers of Wisdom" is not included, so far as I am aware. Otherwise all the copies are exactly ahke. In 1665 Sparrow published a new edition, a duodecimo, 13 "5 cm. x 8"2 cm. This translation differs slightly from the former one, and, strange to say, the 1647 version is, on the whole, the better of the two. In the present reprint the 1647 edition has been followed very closely. Occasionally words from the 1665 edition have been preferred; and in three places whole paragraphs have been adopted from it (Ques. 1, pars. 26-27, 158-161; Ques. 8, par 8); not on account of the superiority of the translation, but because the symbols accompanying these paragraphs do not appear in the earlier edition. In these instances I have followed the example of George Ward, the editor of the 18thcentury reprint, usually known as "Law's edition," of the Forty Questions.
3The title-page of the 1665 edition runs as follows: " Forty Questions I of the I SOUL | concerning its I Original, Essence, Substance, Na- | ture or Quality, and Property, I what it is, from Eternity to Eternity. I Framed by a Lover of the Great Mysteries I DOCTOR BALTHASAB WALTER, I and Answered in the Year, 1620. I by I JACOB BEHME | called I Teutonicus Philosophus. I Englished by John Sparrow. I In the first Question is contained, an Ex- I plantation, of the Philosophick Globe, or Won- | der-Eye of Eternity, or Looking-Glass of I Wisdom, being ONE half Light or Dark Glob I or half Eye with a Rainbow about it, parted, I with the Halves reversed, A Cross, and Heart, I appearing in the Centre, with the Abyss every | where, within it, and without it, in Infinity, I being all ... . LookingGlass. I Printed for L. Lloyd, at the Castle in Cornhil, 1665." In the space between the words "all" and "Looking-Glass" is a small figure, " 9 cm. high, of six semicircular lines, in two pairs, back to back, with cross hnes through the centre. The preliminary matter, by the translator, is the same as the 1647 edition, bearing Blunden's imprint, with the following additions: "Concerning the author, I have now published the brief translation of his life, written in High- Dutch by Abraham van Franckenberg, who was long his acquaintance, and continued so till his death. The Relation is as followeth:
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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