Legacy of an Austrian Physician at the Imperial School of Medicine: Graziadio Friedrich Vallon (1819-1859) and His Library

Abstract

The Imperial School of Medicine was one of the foremost educational institutions of the Ottoman Empire. From 1838 onward, the Austrian physicians invited from Vienna played a significant part in reorganizing the school's curriculum and public health services. Among these physicians were Karl Ambros Bernard, Sigmund Spitzer, Joseph Wartbichler, and Lorenz Rigler. Their biographies and contributions to Ottoman medical education have received relatively large attention, whereas the final representative of the Viennese physicians at the Imperial School of Medicine, Graziadio Friedrich Vallon (1819-1859), has remained a neglected figure in the literature. This article seeks to shed light on Vallon's life and career by using medical periodicals available in the digitized archives of the Austrian National Library, the Bavarian State Library, and a dossier from the Ottoman archives. The dossier includes an inventory listing Vallon's books from his personal library, thereby showing that the library of the Imperial School of Medicine purchased the books after his death. Thanks to this inventory, we have the opportunity to take a closer look at the private library of a 19th century physician and explore, in some measure, the book collection the school's library owned after 1859. © 2022 Istanbul Universitesi. All Rights Reserved.