Page 183 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

532 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

The First Turkish Dictionary

It was not until the early eighteenth century that print- issued by the Sultan authorized the publication of any
ing in Arabic characters was authorized in the Middle book in Turkish. Turkish presses were established
East. Said Effendi, the son of the Ottoman ambassa- with help from local Jewish and Christian printers
dor to Paris, accompanied his father to that city in and typesetters already at work in Istanbul, who
1721. He became interested in the art of printing and aided in the development of Turkish fonts. Other
became convinced that it would be a useful technol- equipment was soon imported from Europe, espe-
ogy in his own country of Turkey. Upon his return to cially Leiden in the Netherlands and Paris, both of
Istanbul, he sought the support of the grand vizier for which had established Arabic presses.
establishing a Turkish printing press. Ibrahim Mute- The first book published in Turkey was a two-
ferrika joined Said Effendi and became the founder volume dictionary printed in 1729.The first volume
and director of the first Turkish operation. He and contains an introduction by the editor, the full texts of
Said Effendi drafted a memorandum on the merits of the imperial firman authorizing the establishment of
printing and, to their surprise, the head of the Mus- the press, and the fatwa declaring the legality of print-
lim religious hierarchy, the Chief Mufti, issued a legal ing, and certificates from the two chief judges and
opinion (fatwa) supporting the acceptability of the other government dignitaries. These sections are fol-
printing of books in Arabic and Turkish on subjects lowed by an essay on the usefulness of printing.
other than religion in the Ottoman Empire.Within a
David Levinson
few short years (1727) an imperial decree (firman)

to employ classical literature to support Christian edu- one of the best-known, medieval anti-Jewish tracts, the
cation” (Katz 1998, 26). In his twenty-volume Etymolo- Dialogi contra Judaeos, by Petrus Alfonsi. Around this
giae, Isidore of Seville (570–636 CE) shifts from the more time the Hortus deliciarum (1195 CE), the first encyclo-
narrow theological focus of Cassiodorus and emphasizes pedia compiled by a woman, Herrad of Landsberg, ap-
“the liberal arts and secular learning as the true basis of peared, as did the first encyclopedia in the vernacular, Le
Christianity” (Collison 1964, 33). He tries to cover all Livre dou Tresor (1265 CE), by Bruno Latini.
that was then known of the world, even including an ety-
mological dictionary. The Renaissance into
The seeds of the medieval scholastic encyclopedia can the Modern Era
be found in Isidore’s and Cassiodorus’s work. Scholasti- The greatest contribution of the Renaissance was an
cism, which tried to reconcile ancient classical philosophy encyclopedia that was barely begun and never finished.
with medieval Church theology, was firmly rooted in later However, Francis Bacon’s Instaurantio magna (1620),
works. Hugh of St. Victor’s Didascalicon (1120 CE) is a with its proposed outline and classification scheme, was
noteworthy example.While adhering to the hierarchy of revolutionary and its influence lasting. Grounded in sci-
text placing scripture and Church-related subjects first, entific method, Bacon covered every known topic of the
Hugh affirmed the seven liberal arts as the basis for clas- day and his outline served as checklist for future encyclo-
sifying knowledge and insisted on the primacy of Latin, pedias, including that of Diderot and the great L’Encyclo-
not the vernacular in his work. Speculum majus (1244– pedie.The seventeenth century also saw the popularizing
1260 CE) is perhaps the most important of the medieval of the alphabetical arrangement with the publication of
encyclopedias. Authored by Vincent of Beauvais, it con- Louis Moreri’s Le grand dictionnaire historique (1674).
sisted of nearly ten thousand chapters in eighty books This made the encyclopedia much easier to consult for
and used some four hundred sources. The Speculum specific facts. John Harris was the first to solicit experts
majus was still being referenced centuries after it first to write articles for his Lexicon Technicum (1704). He also
appeared. Unfortunately, it also played a role in promot- added high-quality illustrations and plates to his work, as
ing anti-Semitism by containing a rewritten version of well as selected bibliographies. Incorporating many of