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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.
138. The twelve children of Jacob are even the lines, which the spirit of God, from Adam to Noah and his children, signified, which sprang from the line of the Covenant in Paradise, and pressed from Adam to Abel, and so on to the children of Noah; and there also twelve lines or stocks [or tribes] were manifested. Here the same tree opens itself again out of one stock, which was Jacob; and signifies how those lines should all be sanctified in one stock; which stock is Christ, who also chose him twelve Apostles to manifest this tree, which was grown out of the line of the Covenant. 39. And as Jacob begat these twelve sons, he begat also a daughter, Dinah by name (Gen. xxx. 21), who went out to see the daughters of the land (Gen. xxxiv. 1), and thereby lost her honour and virginity; and he begat her of Leah, in whom the line was manifested out of the stock [or tribe] of Judah, to signify that the line of Christ at this time as yet stood hidden in the woman's tincture, and yet was manifest through the masculine, viz. the fiery tincture, till Mary, the mother of Christ. As we see in the Covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that the Covenant pressed forward in their seed; we see it also in the circumcision, which was given only to the man [or male] . 40. And much more do we see in the Law on Mount Sinai, which was also given in a way of fire; to signify that men, before Christ, were led in the Father's property, which held us captive in the wrath, till
2his love, viz. his Son, through the wrath, manifested himself in the woman's tincture, and changed the man's and the woman's tincture into one again: therefore the line of Christ, with the Father's, sprang forth in the woman's tincture through the man's. 41. In the man's tincture it was stirring in the Covenant of faith in Abraham, and was manifest out of the man's tincture in the woman. But in the fullness 2 of time it was manifest in Mary, in the woman's tincture, viz. in the highest love; in which love Adam loved himself before his Eve [was], for God was manifest therein. 1 Or, true succession. 2 Fulfilling. 42. There we see here in Dinah a figure of Eve, for after Leah had borne six sons, she bare a daughter, which signifies the female tincture, which in her vain curiosity squandered 1 away her honour; as Eve would see and know the daughters of the world, viz. the bestial creaturely lust, and in this lust lost the Paradisical virginity. 43. Thus the spirit of God here in Dinah sets a figure of Eve near the line of the Covenant, seeing he who should seek and save the poor children of Eve should come out of the line of the Covenant.
344. For Leah did bear six sons, which signify the six properties of the natural life, and the seventh is the substance or corporeity of the six; in which spiritual substance Adam died or was extinguished as to the kingdom of God, when his will brake itself off from God. And that same seventh property of nature is now even the woman, viz. the mother wherein the other six are continually borne, which rightly signifies the Adamical Eve, when Eve was yet in an image or type in Adam. 45. The figure whereof the spirit of God represents in Dinah with Jacob, signifying how that seventh property of nature in Adam is become a whore, perfidious to God; and sets this figure near the line of Christ, [signifying] that Christ should come and change this whore, viz. the seventh property of the human life, into the virginity again. 46. Therefore was Christ born of a virgin, that he might sanctify the woman's tincture again, and change it into the man's tincture, that the man and the woman might again be one image of God, and no more man and woman, but masculine virgins, as Christ was.
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.
138. The twelve children of Jacob are even the lines, which the spirit of God, from Adam to Noah and his children, signified, which sprang from the line of the Covenant in Paradise, and pressed from Adam to Abel, and so on to the children of Noah; and there also twelve lines or stocks [or tribes] were manifested. Here the same tree opens itself again out of one stock, which was Jacob; and signifies how those lines should all be sanctified in one stock; which stock is Christ, who also chose him twelve Apostles to manifest this tree, which was grown out of the line of the Covenant. 39. And as Jacob begat these twelve sons, he begat also a daughter, Dinah by name (Gen. xxx. 21), who went out to see the daughters of the land (Gen. xxxiv. 1), and thereby lost her honour and virginity; and he begat her of Leah, in whom the line was manifested out of the stock [or tribe] of Judah, to signify that the line of Christ at this time as yet stood hidden in the woman's tincture, and yet was manifest through the masculine, viz. the fiery tincture, till Mary, the mother of Christ. As we see in the Covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that the Covenant pressed forward in their seed; we see it also in the circumcision, which was given only to the man [or male] . 40. And much more do we see in the Law on Mount Sinai, which was also given in a way of fire; to signify that men, before Christ, were led in the Father's property, which held us captive in the wrath, till
2his love, viz. his Son, through the wrath, manifested himself in the woman's tincture, and changed the man's and the woman's tincture into one again: therefore the line of Christ, with the Father's, sprang forth in the woman's tincture through the man's. 41. In the man's tincture it was stirring in the Covenant of faith in Abraham, and was manifest out of the man's tincture in the woman. But in the fullness 2 of time it was manifest in Mary, in the woman's tincture, viz. in the highest love; in which love Adam loved himself before his Eve [was], for God was manifest therein. 1 Or, true succession. 2 Fulfilling. 42. There we see here in Dinah a figure of Eve, for after Leah had borne six sons, she bare a daughter, which signifies the female tincture, which in her vain curiosity squandered 1 away her honour; as Eve would see and know the daughters of the world, viz. the bestial creaturely lust, and in this lust lost the Paradisical virginity. 43. Thus the spirit of God here in Dinah sets a figure of Eve near the line of the Covenant, seeing he who should seek and save the poor children of Eve should come out of the line of the Covenant.
344. For Leah did bear six sons, which signify the six properties of the natural life, and the seventh is the substance or corporeity of the six; in which spiritual substance Adam died or was extinguished as to the kingdom of God, when his will brake itself off from God. And that same seventh property of nature is now even the woman, viz. the mother wherein the other six are continually borne, which rightly signifies the Adamical Eve, when Eve was yet in an image or type in Adam. 45. The figure whereof the spirit of God represents in Dinah with Jacob, signifying how that seventh property of nature in Adam is become a whore, perfidious to God; and sets this figure near the line of Christ, [signifying] that Christ should come and change this whore, viz. the seventh property of the human life, into the virginity again. 46. Therefore was Christ born of a virgin, that he might sanctify the woman's tincture again, and change it into the man's tincture, that the man and the woman might again be one image of God, and no more man and woman, but masculine virgins, as Christ was.
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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