NEW YORK, June 27 (UPI) -- A New York physician with a doctorate in sexuality said his pornography collection has 350,000 items dating as far back as the 13th century.

Clifford Scheiner, 61, a former emergency room doctor who now operates a mail-order erotic book business, said his collection of pornographic books, films and photos includes 13th century manuscripts in addition to every issue of Playboy magazine ever published, the New York Daily News reported Monday.


"It is certainly one of the largest collections of erotology and sexology in the world," Scheiner said.

Scheiner said he started collecting pornography and erotica in the 1960s.

"I became interested because of the mystery involved," he said. "To hear people talk about it -- nobody bought it, nobody sold it, nobody owned it, nobody printed it, nobody illustrated it and nobody bound it, but the books were there and that intrigued me.

"I taught myself to recognize most of the dirty words in most of the languages that use the Roman alphabet. I don't have huge language skills, but I get a pretty good idea of what is going on."

Scheiner said he has probably spent about $1 million on his collection.

"But that is over a 30-year period, so actually it's like $30,000 a year," he said. "That isn't a whole lot."