Seidel Collection

The library is the life-work of Prof. Dr. Ernst Seidel, a well-known and distinguished physician living now a private life in Oberspaar near Meissen, Saxony. Advanced age and poor health compelled him to renounce the continuance of his practice as well as his private studies and so he determined to part with his books upon the collection of which he had spent all his care and energy during forty years of his life.

In order to become more closely familiar with the spirit of the east, Dr. Seidel undertook the study of the eastern languages, chiefly Arabic, Turkish and Persian. He became highly proficient in his knowledge, his name now being well-known as that of an orientalist, and as the author of several useful grammars and linguistic guides. More than 300 philological works (grammars, dictionaries, etc.) about various eastern languages make the apparatus for these specific studies, to which are to be added about 300-400 books of fiction and literature mostly in the Arabic and Turkish languages, the reading of which enabled him to get his intimate knowledge of the individuality and spirit of eastern men, which provided of the highest value for his further studies of eastern medicine. . .

It is only natural that this close contact with east awakened Dr. Seidel's interest in the history of eastern medicine, and the more he advanced this field of study, the more he became convinced that eastern, primarily Arabic, medicine, is the basis on which all medical knowledge of western peoples is based. Dr. Seidel's collection of books treating of the medicine of the east, either represented by original texts or translations of treatises and commentaries in European languages, is one of the most valuable sections of the whole library (about 1000 volumes). Dr. Seidel spent all his skill upon bringing together all well-known works treating this subject and hardly any important author is missing. There are very old editions and about thirty Arabic manuscripts, most of which are of very old date.