La Torino dell’Ottocento: una realtà attiva e dinamica nell’educazione dei sordomuti

Turin in the nineteenth century: an active and dynamic reality in the education of the deaf and mute

Abstract

During the Nineteenth century the education of the deaf and mute in Turin is characterized by the presence of three institutions: the school of the lay Giovanni Battista Scagliotti, founded in 1819; the Royal Normal School promoted in the Carlo-Albertina age (between 1831-1849); the Institute started by Don Lorenzo Prinotti in 1881. The history of these institutions, deeply intertwined, is affected by the influence exerted by the political context and the choices made in the educational and welfare fields. The comparison on the didactic level emerges the contrast between two different models: one elite, based on the exclusive use of the word; the other accessible to all thanks to the use of gestures.