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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.
124. But seeing the devil assailed the property of the fire's tincture, and brought his false desire thereinto, so that the fire's tincture was divided in the properties of the eternal nature, each property on the centre gave itself forth into its selfhood, whence the selfly revolted will and the false lust did arise; which lust desired to prove the dark world's essence, viz. the earthly essence out of the dark world's desire, and to taste in itself how the same would relish, if evil and good (each manifest in itself) were together, viz. in the dis-temperature without the divine One. Hereupon the false fiery desire shut up the property of the light's tincture with the introduced vanity of the devil's desire, and with the earthly hunger after the vanity (proceeding from the dark world's essence) in the earth, and in the elements, so that the heavenly female or right virgin-like life was extinct in the ens of the light. 25. For the Holy Spirit departed from the introduced vanity; and so the holy matrix, viz. the heavenly generatress, disappeared, and the mother of the outward nature, viz. the outward natural woman, (understand the property of the woman), got the upper dominion in the birth: so that Adam must now be divided and figured into a man and woman.
226. But seeing the fiery property of the tincture (which now has the dominion in the man, and is called man by reason of the Father's property) was the cause of the poisonful infection; so that the tincture of Venus, viz. of the woman, or the light, was mortified; and seeing he introduced in himself the abomination of lust into the woman's property, (whereby afterwards the woman, viz. his Eve, did so eagerly lust after evil and good, and began the earthly eating). Thereupon we are here to consider, that this same fire's soul, viz. the man's tincture, must be baptised again with the divine love-fire, that so it might not introduce the ens of the devil and Serpent, insinuated into the masculine seed, so poisonful, into the woman's matrix; it must be tinetured and baptised again with the divine love-tincture, viz. with the holy love-ens, which came to pass in the ens of faith, in the promised incorporated Word of the power of God. 27. But the woman, viz. Adam's virginity, was now transformed or formed out of Adam's nature and essence into a woman or manness, and in her the holy virginity disappeared as to God, viz. the tincture of the love and light did still remain, but as it were dead or disappeared; for the outward mother, viz. the elementary mother, lived now in its stead in her, and was the generatress of nature, which must receive Adam's, viz. the man's, seed into itself.
328. Into this disappeared heavenly tincture of the light, viz. into the true holy virginity, the eternal holy Word of the power of God, which had created Adam into an image of God, did promise in-hest, and incorporate itself, with a Covenant, to bruise the head of the devil and the Serpent's ens. 29. Thus understand us here very accurately. Like as the Father generates the Son; and as out of Adam (who betokens the Father's property) the woman, viz. his love-tincture, was taken; and as before, while the woman was in the man, the fire's tincture penetrated into the light's tincture, and loved itself therein; and as man and woman are one body-so likewise the fire-baptism of the circumcision went forth out of the man's fire tincture into his female tincture in the woman. God baptised the fire's tincture in the man, and out of the man's seed comes both the male and the female sex. 30. Thus the man's Covenant and baptism entered into the woman, viz. into the female property, for the woman's tincture had in it already the holy ens in the Covenant, that God's Word in the Covenant would become man, in her shut up [barren] ens, and quicken again therein the disappeared virginity.
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.
124. But seeing the devil assailed the property of the fire's tincture, and brought his false desire thereinto, so that the fire's tincture was divided in the properties of the eternal nature, each property on the centre gave itself forth into its selfhood, whence the selfly revolted will and the false lust did arise; which lust desired to prove the dark world's essence, viz. the earthly essence out of the dark world's desire, and to taste in itself how the same would relish, if evil and good (each manifest in itself) were together, viz. in the dis-temperature without the divine One. Hereupon the false fiery desire shut up the property of the light's tincture with the introduced vanity of the devil's desire, and with the earthly hunger after the vanity (proceeding from the dark world's essence) in the earth, and in the elements, so that the heavenly female or right virgin-like life was extinct in the ens of the light. 25. For the Holy Spirit departed from the introduced vanity; and so the holy matrix, viz. the heavenly generatress, disappeared, and the mother of the outward nature, viz. the outward natural woman, (understand the property of the woman), got the upper dominion in the birth: so that Adam must now be divided and figured into a man and woman.
226. But seeing the fiery property of the tincture (which now has the dominion in the man, and is called man by reason of the Father's property) was the cause of the poisonful infection; so that the tincture of Venus, viz. of the woman, or the light, was mortified; and seeing he introduced in himself the abomination of lust into the woman's property, (whereby afterwards the woman, viz. his Eve, did so eagerly lust after evil and good, and began the earthly eating). Thereupon we are here to consider, that this same fire's soul, viz. the man's tincture, must be baptised again with the divine love-fire, that so it might not introduce the ens of the devil and Serpent, insinuated into the masculine seed, so poisonful, into the woman's matrix; it must be tinetured and baptised again with the divine love-tincture, viz. with the holy love-ens, which came to pass in the ens of faith, in the promised incorporated Word of the power of God. 27. But the woman, viz. Adam's virginity, was now transformed or formed out of Adam's nature and essence into a woman or manness, and in her the holy virginity disappeared as to God, viz. the tincture of the love and light did still remain, but as it were dead or disappeared; for the outward mother, viz. the elementary mother, lived now in its stead in her, and was the generatress of nature, which must receive Adam's, viz. the man's, seed into itself.
328. Into this disappeared heavenly tincture of the light, viz. into the true holy virginity, the eternal holy Word of the power of God, which had created Adam into an image of God, did promise in-hest, and incorporate itself, with a Covenant, to bruise the head of the devil and the Serpent's ens. 29. Thus understand us here very accurately. Like as the Father generates the Son; and as out of Adam (who betokens the Father's property) the woman, viz. his love-tincture, was taken; and as before, while the woman was in the man, the fire's tincture penetrated into the light's tincture, and loved itself therein; and as man and woman are one body-so likewise the fire-baptism of the circumcision went forth out of the man's fire tincture into his female tincture in the woman. God baptised the fire's tincture in the man, and out of the man's seed comes both the male and the female sex. 30. Thus the man's Covenant and baptism entered into the woman, viz. into the female property, for the woman's tincture had in it already the holy ens in the Covenant, that God's Word in the Covenant would become man, in her shut up [barren] ens, and quicken again therein the disappeared virginity.
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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