2 volumes, folio (326 x 196 mm). Volume I: 232 leaves including title and contents leaves; Volume II: 254 leaves title and contents leaves. Mimeograph typescript printed recto only with manuscript diagrams, equations, and figures, and emendations and emphases to the typed text. Half cloth (some light wear to extremities). Provenance: Andries Charl Cilliers (1898-1980), theoretical physicist (ownership inscription); sold Christie's London, 13 December 2006, Sale 7269, Lot 131.

The lectures on thermodynamics include sections on capillarity, the theory of the ideal gas according to Planck, thermochemistry and applications of van der Waal's equations; those on optics cover electromagnetism, field theory, wave theory, refraction, optical properties of crystals, electron theory, and Born's mathematical theory of optical rotation. Up to this point, Born's work had focused on heat and the dynamics of crystal lattice, and by 1921, he provided the most satisfactory mathematical statement on the first law of thermodynamics.

That year, he was appointed professor of theoretical physics at Göttingen, where he joined a group of scientists whose collaboration brought forth major developments in theoretical physics, culminating in the birth of quantum mechanics.  The present lecture formed part of his first academic year at the institute.   "The 'Born School' at Göttingen was as important to the flowering of theoretical physics as the schools of Bohr at Copenhagen and of Arnold Sommerfeld at Munich' (DSB).  A.C. Cilliers became professor of theoretical physics at Stellenbosch University after he completed his studies at Göttingen.