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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.
1for the ens of grace had given itself into the ens of nature. Now each did set forth its own figure: with Ishmael the kingdom of nature, and with Isaac the kingdom of grace [was represented]. Isaac was the twig which sprang up out of the field of faith, viz. in the line of Christ; and from him came Jacob, viz. the branch forth- spreading and displaying itself into a tree with many boughs and branches. 23. Not that we are to understand that Jacob did grow and spring forth only out of the kingdom of grace; for the kingdom of nature, in which Ishmael and Esau stood, was also his ground as to the creature, but the ens of faith had given itself thereinto, and tinctured nature, and advanced its power, viz. the line of the Covenant of God, in nature. 1 Kernels, seeds. 24. As a blossom upon the stalk has far a more pure subtle property than the stalk and root; and as out of the blossom first the fruit and a new seed proceeds, viz. out of the subtle ens; so likewise in Jacob, the blossom of the kingdom of Israel first came forth; and no more in the division, as it is to be understood with Ishmael
2and Isaac, but both kingdoms together, viz. the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace, not any more each kingdom by itself or apart in the figure; but in the type of the new regeneration, showing how God in his love had given himself again into man, viz. into the kingdom of nature, and how through his power the wicked ens of the Serpent (sown by the devil into the kingdom of nature) should be broken and killed. 25. Therefore God called Jacob, Israel, viz. a flourishing, forthspreading tree of many boughs and branches ; or, as it is understood in the formation of the word in the High Tongue, a flourishing or fresh springing of Paradise. Where the / gives itself into the root, to a new centre, and springs forth powerfully through the root, with which the Word of the Covenant is understood in the name JESUS. For this / is the character of the Unius, viz. of the eternal One in the divine tubet, which Adam lost when he departed from the 7, viz. from the only will of God, and entered into self and into the various multiplicity of the properties in their disharmony, unequality and discord, to try, prove and taste good and evil, in the five senses.
326. This / brought itself of grace again into the divided, rent and torn properties of the Adamical human tree; and sprang forth through and with the Adamical tree; and hence he had his name, Israel; being as a great number and power of such branches, all which do spring and grow forth in the new tincture. In which also the ens of the corrupt nature grew up all along; even as the sun's and the earth's power do work and grow together in the fruit of the tree, and are always in contest one with another, until the fruit be ripe, and a new kernel for another fruit be produced and also ripe, and then the tree leaves the fruit, and sows the new kernel for another young tree. 27. In this nature and manner also arose the strife and combat with Esau and Jacob in the womb; to signify that the corrupt nature with the Serpent's ens should be rejected and cast off; as the tree does let fall its ripe fruit, and desires only the kernel [to propagate its like] : so it was here when the ens of Christ did stir itself up in Jacob, then arose the strife and enmity. For the ens of Christ should rule; and the wrath in the Serpent's ens, that would also rule; and hence came the contest about the dominion and kingdom. The ens of Christ set itself aloft in Jacob, and bruised the head of the essence of the Serpent's ens in Esau, and even there the Serpent stung Christ on the heel, and thence it came that both the children did strive and struggle together in the womb.
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.
1for the ens of grace had given itself into the ens of nature. Now each did set forth its own figure: with Ishmael the kingdom of nature, and with Isaac the kingdom of grace [was represented]. Isaac was the twig which sprang up out of the field of faith, viz. in the line of Christ; and from him came Jacob, viz. the branch forth- spreading and displaying itself into a tree with many boughs and branches. 23. Not that we are to understand that Jacob did grow and spring forth only out of the kingdom of grace; for the kingdom of nature, in which Ishmael and Esau stood, was also his ground as to the creature, but the ens of faith had given itself thereinto, and tinctured nature, and advanced its power, viz. the line of the Covenant of God, in nature. 1 Kernels, seeds. 24. As a blossom upon the stalk has far a more pure subtle property than the stalk and root; and as out of the blossom first the fruit and a new seed proceeds, viz. out of the subtle ens; so likewise in Jacob, the blossom of the kingdom of Israel first came forth; and no more in the division, as it is to be understood with Ishmael
2and Isaac, but both kingdoms together, viz. the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace, not any more each kingdom by itself or apart in the figure; but in the type of the new regeneration, showing how God in his love had given himself again into man, viz. into the kingdom of nature, and how through his power the wicked ens of the Serpent (sown by the devil into the kingdom of nature) should be broken and killed. 25. Therefore God called Jacob, Israel, viz. a flourishing, forthspreading tree of many boughs and branches ; or, as it is understood in the formation of the word in the High Tongue, a flourishing or fresh springing of Paradise. Where the / gives itself into the root, to a new centre, and springs forth powerfully through the root, with which the Word of the Covenant is understood in the name JESUS. For this / is the character of the Unius, viz. of the eternal One in the divine tubet, which Adam lost when he departed from the 7, viz. from the only will of God, and entered into self and into the various multiplicity of the properties in their disharmony, unequality and discord, to try, prove and taste good and evil, in the five senses.
326. This / brought itself of grace again into the divided, rent and torn properties of the Adamical human tree; and sprang forth through and with the Adamical tree; and hence he had his name, Israel; being as a great number and power of such branches, all which do spring and grow forth in the new tincture. In which also the ens of the corrupt nature grew up all along; even as the sun's and the earth's power do work and grow together in the fruit of the tree, and are always in contest one with another, until the fruit be ripe, and a new kernel for another fruit be produced and also ripe, and then the tree leaves the fruit, and sows the new kernel for another young tree. 27. In this nature and manner also arose the strife and combat with Esau and Jacob in the womb; to signify that the corrupt nature with the Serpent's ens should be rejected and cast off; as the tree does let fall its ripe fruit, and desires only the kernel [to propagate its like] : so it was here when the ens of Christ did stir itself up in Jacob, then arose the strife and enmity. For the ens of Christ should rule; and the wrath in the Serpent's ens, that would also rule; and hence came the contest about the dominion and kingdom. The ens of Christ set itself aloft in Jacob, and bruised the head of the essence of the Serpent's ens in Esau, and even there the Serpent stung Christ on the heel, and thence it came that both the children did strive and struggle together in the womb.
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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