Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Original brown half-leather bdg. with a clip. "Poesie" title on black cloth front cover. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic script). [2], 153, [3] p. Completely handwritten with numerous pages. All edges gilt. This unique manuscript is probably an early sketch written in Ottoman script to be used later for its first edition published by Maarif Vekâleti [i.e. Turkish Ministry of Education] in 1947 in modern Turkish with Latin letters. The Mysterious Universe is a popular science book by the British astrophysicist Sir James Jeans, first published in 1930 by the Cambridge University Press. In the United States, it was published by Macmillan. The book is an expanded version of the Red Lecture delivered at the University of Cambridge in 1930. It begins with a full-page citation of the famous passage in Plato's Republic, Book VII, laying out the allegory of the cave. The book made frequent reference to the quantum theory of radiation, initiated by Max Planck in 1900, to Albert Einstein's general relativity, and to the new theories of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg and Schrödinger, of whose philosophical perplexities the author seemed well aware. The book was denounced by the Cambridge philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, because "Jeans has written a book called The Mysterious Universe and I loathe it and call it misleading. Take the title... I might say that the title The Mysterious Universe includes a kind of idol worship, the idol being Science and the Scientist." A second edition appeared in 1931. The book was reprinted 15 times between 1930 and 1938 and again in September 2007. Salih Murat Uzdilek (1891-1967) was the first to translate this book into Turkish, printed in 1947 under the title "Esrarli kâinât". Although there's no sign in this manuscript, probably the author is Uzdilek. He was a Professor of Physics at Istanbul Technical University, graduated as a naval officer in 1908. It was his father Mehmed Sefik Bey, who as a mathematics teacher introduced him to the study of the subject. Salih Murat developed an interest in the history of mathematics through readings of books by F. Cajori and D. E. Smith. Uzdilek studied engineering in London prior to the First World War, where he was invited to present a communication on the "Introduction of logarithms into Turkey" at the Napier Tercentenary organized by The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 25-27 July 1914. The paper published in the Napier Tercentenary Memorial Volume (1915) was based on the research by Salih Zeki Bey, historian of science and Rector of Istanbul University between 1913 and 1917, published in his Kamus-i Riyaziyat (Encyclopaedia of Mathematics 1898). His findings indicate that Yirmisekiz Mehmet Çelebi, the Sultan's envoy to France, had been presented an astronomical text which included logarithms by the astronomer Jacques Cassini during his visit to the Paris Observatory in 1714. It was this collection that led to the introduction of logarithms into Turkey. Kalfazade Ismail Efendi, a timekeeper, and mathematician compiled an introduction to logarithms for his translation of the astronomical tables of J. Cassini in 1772, which is considered the first work on logarithms, into Turkish. Gelenbevi Ismail Efendi, renowned for his works in mathematics and logic, completed his Logaritma Serhi (Commentary on Logarithms) in 1787. After his return to Istanbul, Salih Murat Uzdilek was invited by the Austrian Dean of the School of Engineering, Prof. Philipp Forchheimer, to give physics lessons at the school. Prof. Uzdilek pursued his interest in the history of mathematics and physics throughout his long career. He was also an active researcher in the physics of sound and music and contributed to the contemporary tonal system of Turkish music. In his later years, Prof. Uzdilek was invited to lecture at the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei.
