The title page of this book makes a promise few books dare. It will describe the eternal birth of the Holy Trinity, the creation of the angels, the stars and elements, and man; and it will explain "what the wrath of God (sin, death, devil, and hell) is." Jacob Böhme wrote it in 1619, by divine illumination as the title says, and it is his second major work: the first full map of his system, in which a dark world of fire and wrath, a light world of love, and this visible world between them account for everything that exists. The edition's own catalog lists the work as De Tribus Principiis cum Appendice, and the appendix is here, running the volume to its 493rd page, where Böhme takes his leave of the reader with a blessing: "Therefore, O man, see to it, do not ruin yourself… and you will green and bloom with a new body… in the life of your dear helper and redeemer Jesus Christ. Fiat, Amen!" Then ENDE, and the printer's knot.
The plate, numbered II. under a banner reading "Drey Principia," puts the whole system in one engraving: the dove of the Spirit descending in a triangle of light through a ring of cherub heads, the starry wheel of this world beneath it, and at the bottom the dark sphere where the dragons coil. It faces the special title, which is dated 1730 and records the year of composition, 1619. Böhme's own preface to the Christian, God-loving reader follows, with the chapter-summaries.
The text appears here in the celebrated edition of 1730, the Theosophia Revelata, a revised collected edition of Böhme's works, assembled from the editorial apparatus of Johann Georg Gichtel and carried through the press by his disciple Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld. The binding is the original one: stiff paper boards covered in red-daubed paste-paper, the spine titled in ink in an eighteenth-century hand, with an old paper shelf-label at the head. The worm has been at this copy: wormtracks run along the gutters and lower margins of a run of leaves and into the boards. The worming is confined to the margins. The text is clean of any annotation, sound and legible throughout, and the plate is fresh.
Provenance: Early paper shelf-label ("Th 4[2?]") at the spine-head, from an old library arrangement.
De Tribus Principiis, oder Beschreibung der Drey Principien Göttliches Wesens, with the Appendix. From the Theosophia Revelata, the collected edition of Böhme's works, 1730, with the emblematic plate. In original stiff paper boards, entirely unsophisticated.
BÖHME, Jacob (1575–1624). De Tribus Principiis, oder Beschreibung der Drey Principien Göttliches Wesens, with the Appendix (written 1619). From the Theosophia Revelata, the revised collected edition, ed. Johann Georg Gichtel, seen through the press by Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld. No place or printer: "Gedruckt im Jahr des ausgebornen grossen Heils," 1730.
Physical Description: Small 8vo. Engraved emblematic plate numbered II. ("Drey Principia") facing the special title, dated 1730; author's preface with Summarien; 493 pp., the Appendix concluding at p. 493 with terminal ENDE and calligraphic knot ornament; final blank. Fraktur type, Gichtel's chapter-summaries throughout.
Binding: Original stiff paper boards covered in red-patterned paste-paper, spine with manuscript ink title and early paper shelf-label at head; an untouched, unsophisticated period state. Boards rubbed and worn, spine ends chipped.
Condition: Worming to the gutters and lower margins of a number of leaves and to the boards, never touching the print; paper toned and foxed as usual with this stock. Clean of annotations, sound and entirely legible; the plate fresh.
The title page of this book makes a promise few books dare. It will describe the eternal birth of the Holy Trinity, the creation of the angels, the stars and elements, and man; and it will explain "what the wrath of God (sin, death, devil, and hell) is." Jacob Böhme wrote it in 1619, by divine illumination as the title says, and it is his second major work: the first full map of his system, in which a dark world of fire and wrath, a light world of love, and this visible world between them account for everything that exists. The edition's own catalog lists the work as De Tribus Principiis cum Appendice, and the appendix is here, running the volume to its 493rd page, where Böhme takes his leave of the reader with a blessing: "Therefore, O man, see to it, do not ruin yourself… and you will green and bloom with a new body… in the life of your dear helper and redeemer Jesus Christ. Fiat, Amen!" Then ENDE, and the printer's knot.
The plate, numbered II. under a banner reading "Drey Principia," puts the whole system in one engraving: the dove of the Spirit descending in a triangle of light through a ring of cherub heads, the starry wheel of this world beneath it, and at the bottom the dark sphere where the dragons coil. It faces the special title, which is dated 1730 and records the year of composition, 1619. Böhme's own preface to the Christian, God-loving reader follows, with the chapter-summaries.
The text appears here in the celebrated edition of 1730, the Theosophia Revelata, a revised collected edition of Böhme's works, assembled from the editorial apparatus of Johann Georg Gichtel and carried through the press by his disciple Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld. The binding is the original one: stiff paper boards covered in red-daubed paste-paper, the spine titled in ink in an eighteenth-century hand, with an old paper shelf-label at the head. The worm has been at this copy: wormtracks run along the gutters and lower margins of a run of leaves and into the boards. The worming is confined to the margins. The text is clean of any annotation, sound and legible throughout, and the plate is fresh.
Provenance: Early paper shelf-label ("Th 4[2?]") at the spine-head, from an old library arrangement.
De Tribus Principiis, oder Beschreibung der Drey Principien Göttliches Wesens, with the Appendix. From the Theosophia Revelata, the collected edition of Böhme's works, 1730, with the emblematic plate. In original stiff paper boards, entirely unsophisticated.
BÖHME, Jacob (1575–1624). De Tribus Principiis, oder Beschreibung der Drey Principien Göttliches Wesens, with the Appendix (written 1619). From the Theosophia Revelata, the revised collected edition, ed. Johann Georg Gichtel, seen through the press by Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld. No place or printer: "Gedruckt im Jahr des ausgebornen grossen Heils," 1730.
Physical Description: Small 8vo. Engraved emblematic plate numbered II. ("Drey Principia") facing the special title, dated 1730; author's preface with Summarien; 493 pp., the Appendix concluding at p. 493 with terminal ENDE and calligraphic knot ornament; final blank. Fraktur type, Gichtel's chapter-summaries throughout.
Binding: Original stiff paper boards covered in red-patterned paste-paper, spine with manuscript ink title and early paper shelf-label at head; an untouched, unsophisticated period state. Boards rubbed and worn, spine ends chipped.
Condition: Worming to the gutters and lower margins of a number of leaves and to the boards, never touching the print; paper toned and foxed as usual with this stock. Clean of annotations, sound and entirely legible; the plate fresh.
