The light of knowledge. Brief historical outline of some of the talented people who changed the destiny of the blind, from Haüy to Brail

The light of knowledge. Brief historical outline of some of the talented people who changed the destiny of the blind, from Haüy to Brail

Authors

  • Maria Cristina Petralia IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Strada Statale 113, C.da Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy
  • Marinella Coco University of Catania
  • Maria Sofia Basile Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania,

Keywords:

blind, Charles Barbier, Valentin Haüy, Johann Wilhelm Klein, Maurice Ballu, Louis Braille

Abstract

In the 16th and 17th century the blind were considered unfortunates who could have no other future than to “to be mocked by idle folk in the public square for their blundering and clumsiness”. Clearly no sort of instruction was considered for such people. The change came at the end of the 18th century, thanks to Valentin Haüy, a philanthropist and teacher of calligraphy, who had also been a pupil of the abbot Michel de l’Épée. short historical excursus from to Valentin Haüy to Charles Barbier de la Serre.

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Published

06-12-2019

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 3 (2019)

Section

Review articles: History of Medicine

License

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.

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How to Cite

1.
Petralia MC, Coco M, Basile MS. The light of knowledge. Brief historical outline of some of the talented people who changed the destiny of the blind, from Haüy to Brail. Med Histor [Internet]. 2019 Dec. 6 [cited 2025 Mar. 15];3(3):185-7. Available from: https://mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/MedHistor/article/view/8501