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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. Anno 1620. A book of the Threefold Life of Man. 4. An Answer to the Forty Questions of the Soul, propounded by Doctor Balthasar Walter. In the first chapter of it is an Exposition of the Turned Eye, or Philosophic Globe, with an addition concerning the soul, the image of the soul, and the turba or destroyeress of the image. 5. Three Books: The first, Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The second, Of the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. The third, Of the Tree of Faith. 6. A book of Six Points. 7. A book of The Heavenly and Earthly Mysterium. 8. A book of The Last Times. To P. K. 9. Anno 1621. A book, De Signatura Rerum, or The Signature of all Things. 10. A consolatory book, Of the Four Complexions. 11. An Apology to Balthasar Tilken, in two parts. 12. A Consideration upon Esaias Stiefel's Book. 13. Anno 1622. A book, Of True Repentance. 14. A book, Of True Resignation. 15. A book, Of Regeneration. 16. Anno 1623. A book, Of Predestination and Election of God. At the end of it is written the following treatise, viz.: — 17. A Short Compendium of Repentance. 18. The Mysterium Magnum. Upon Genesis. 19. Anno 1624. A Table of the Principles, or a Key of his writings. To G. F. and I. H. 20. A little book, Of the Super sensual Life. (21.) A little book, Of Divine Contemplation. 22. A book, Of the Two Testaments of Christ, viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 23. A Dialogue between the Enlightened and the Unenlightened Soul.
224. An Apology upon the Book of True Repentance. Directed against a Pasquil of the principal minister of Gorlitz, called Gregory Rickter. (25.) A book of 177 Theosophic Questions. 26. An Epitome of the Mysterium Magnum. (27.) The Holy Week, or The Prayer Book. 28. A Table of the Divine Manifestation, or An Exposition of the Threefold World. To I. S. V. S. and A. V. F. In these two that follow the date is not set down. 29. A book, Of the Errors of the Sects of Ezechiel Meths. To A. P. A., or An Apology to Esaias Stiefel. 30. A book, Of the Last Judgment. Further: 31. Certain Letters to Divers Persons. Written at divers times, with certain Keys for some hidden words. The books which the author finished not, are marked with this sign ( ). PRINTED BYNEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH
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. Anno 1620. A book of the Threefold Life of Man. 4. An Answer to the Forty Questions of the Soul, propounded by Doctor Balthasar Walter. In the first chapter of it is an Exposition of the Turned Eye, or Philosophic Globe, with an addition concerning the soul, the image of the soul, and the turba or destroyeress of the image. 5. Three Books: The first, Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The second, Of the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. The third, Of the Tree of Faith. 6. A book of Six Points. 7. A book of The Heavenly and Earthly Mysterium. 8. A book of The Last Times. To P. K. 9. Anno 1621. A book, De Signatura Rerum, or The Signature of all Things. 10. A consolatory book, Of the Four Complexions. 11. An Apology to Balthasar Tilken, in two parts. 12. A Consideration upon Esaias Stiefel's Book. 13. Anno 1622. A book, Of True Repentance. 14. A book, Of True Resignation. 15. A book, Of Regeneration. 16. Anno 1623. A book, Of Predestination and Election of God. At the end of it is written the following treatise, viz.: — 17. A Short Compendium of Repentance. 18. The Mysterium Magnum. Upon Genesis. 19. Anno 1624. A Table of the Principles, or a Key of his writings. To G. F. and I. H. 20. A little book, Of the Super sensual Life. (21.) A little book, Of Divine Contemplation. 22. A book, Of the Two Testaments of Christ, viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 23. A Dialogue between the Enlightened and the Unenlightened Soul.
224. An Apology upon the Book of True Repentance. Directed against a Pasquil of the principal minister of Gorlitz, called Gregory Rickter. (25.) A book of 177 Theosophic Questions. 26. An Epitome of the Mysterium Magnum. (27.) The Holy Week, or The Prayer Book. 28. A Table of the Divine Manifestation, or An Exposition of the Threefold World. To I. S. V. S. and A. V. F. In these two that follow the date is not set down. 29. A book, Of the Errors of the Sects of Ezechiel Meths. To A. P. A., or An Apology to Esaias Stiefel. 30. A book, Of the Last Judgment. Further: 31. Certain Letters to Divers Persons. Written at divers times, with certain Keys for some hidden words. The books which the author finished not, are marked with this sign ( ). PRINTED BYNEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH
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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