The Establishment of Institutes for the Blind in Italy
Main Article Content
Keywords
Blindness, typhlology, ophthalmology
Abstract
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the newly-unified Italian nation found itself having to face a variety of serious problems in all sectors of human activities. Among the many social and health issues was that of blindness, both in cities and in the countryside. Not only were there large numbers who lost their sight but above all they were without any form of assistance. The situation was exarcebated by the fact that in most cases the afflicted were children (1). The diseases that led to blindness were mainly of an infectious nature, which could already arise during pregnancy but were especially prevalent at the time of childbirth. Moreover, trachoma was at the time in an endemic state across almost the whole country. Thus in this period in Italy - but also throughout Europe - Institutes for the Blind were established, aimed towards assembling abandoned and helpless blind people (2), providing them with accommodation and, as the ultimate goal, ensuring adequate education and instruction in order to give them full autonomy. Thus, typhlology began to develop in scientific relevance and became defined as a science for the study of the problems and conditions of the blind in order to ensure their autonomy and their complete social and cultural integration.
References
2. Zagler WL, Treml M, Busse D, Busboom M, Deák I. Braille Ring: The shortest long braille-display in the world – A review of the state-of-the-art and a new approach. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2018 LNCS; 313-321
3. Intercultura, anno VII/2005 pagg. 68-73
4. Emanuele Rapisarda, Louis Braille: un cieco nella Francia del Primo Ottocento, Tiflopedia, Enciclopedia multimediale delle scienze tiflologiche; 2011.
5. Cantisani V, Iannetti G, Miele V et al. Addendum to the sonographic medical act J Ultrasound 2021;24(3):229-230.
6. Bernetti A, La Russa R, de Sire A, et al. Cervical Spine Manipulations: Role of Diagnostic Procedures, Effectiveness, and Safety from a Rehabilitation and Forensic Medicine Perspective: A Systematic Review Diagnostics (Basel) 2022;12(5):1056
7. De' Gennaro, G. Ophthalmic social welfare in Italy, Europe and overseas Minerva Med 1967;58(63):2768-70.
8. Fiorini F, Granata A, Battaglia Y, Karaboue MAA. Talking about medicine through mass media G Ital Nefrol 2019;36(1):2019-vol1.
9. Lyons AS, Petruccelli RJ. La storia della medicina, Abradale Press, HN Abrams Inc, New York; 1992.
10. Šupe T, škola Pećine O. Library for the blind and visually impaired, with special reference to first child library for children with visual impairment. Vjesnik Bibliotekara Hrvatske 2013;56(4),169-178.
11. Giaconi C, Manetti AC, Turco S et al. Post-mortem computer tomography in ten cases of death while diving: a retrospective evaluation. Radiol Med 2022 Mar;127(3):318-329.
12. Hatwell Y, Gentaz E, Early psychological studies on touch and their evolution in France. Annee Psychol 2011;111(4),701-72.
13. Bascapè MG, Canella M, Rebora S. Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano, la storia, gli uomini e il patrimonio”, 2003
14. Herbermann C. Valentin Hauy, Enciclopedia cattolica, New York: Robert Appleton Company;1913.
15. Scaraffia L, I cattolici che hanno fatto l’Italia. Religiosi e cattolici piemontesi di fronte all’Unità d’Italia. Torino, Lindau, 2011.
16. Giordano A, Pasini M. I ciechi dai ghetti ai diritti, Il Mulino 2018
17. Henri P, La vita e le opere di Louis Braille, Biblioteca Italiana per i Ciechi, 2000
18. Riv. Di Tiflologia e di Igiene Oculare, Anno II, n. 3,5-6-7, 1906
19. Raspini M, Cavalcanti R, Clementini M, Karaboue M, Sforza NM, Cairo F. Periodontitis and italians (2016-2020): Need for clinical guidelines to perform effective therapy. Dental Cadmos 2021;89(5)346-356.
20. Lepre S, Le difficoltà dell’assistenza: le opere pie in Italia fra ‘800 e ‘900, Bulzoni 1988.
21. Disability Studies Quarterly, 2002, 22(4).
22. Rivista di Tiflologia e di Prevenzione della cecità. Appendice, anni IV;7-8,84
23. Karaboue MAA, Ferrara M, Bertozzi G et al. To vaccinate or not: literacy against hesitancy: Vaccination hesitancy. Med Histor 2022;6(1).
24. Karaboue MAA, Milone V. What will our children do when we are gone? Italian legislature does not tackle the worries of parents of disabled children. Reflections on disability. Med Histor 2022;6(1).
25. Morandini MC. Charitable Turin: The institute of education of the blind. History of Education and Children's Literature 2013;8(1),657-671.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
How to Cite
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Transfer of Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Parts of Published Papers.
Authors retain the copyright for their published work. No formal permission will be required to reproduce parts (tables or illustrations) of published papers, provided the source is quoted appropriately and reproduction has no commercial intent. Reproductions with commercial intent will require written permission and payment of royalties.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.