PBA Galleries

280 pp. 24 full page plates, including frontispiece. (8vo) early pink paper wrappers, later marbled paper backstrip. Third Edition, enlarged.

It was not until the late 18th century that society began to take an interest in the education of the blind.  Until that time they were considered mostly uneducable and untrainable.  One of the major figures in the movement to educate the blind was Sébastien Guillié.  He established the first ophthalmological clinic in France and became director of the Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris.  The Institution, founded by Haüy in 1785, was the first such school for the blind in the world.  In the present work, Guillié chronicles the philanthropic deeds directed toward the blind up to that time and describes the first attempts at special graphic methods for the use of the blind.  Of particular interest is the account of his methods of instructing the blind in various crafts and activities.  The plates show blind persons of both sexes engaged in a variety of skilled occupations, including playing musical instruments, basketmaking, weaving, sewing, and printing (the book itself was printed by the blind.)  The book was first published in shorter form in 1817 with 224 pp. and 22 plates. --See Becker 169.  See Albert p. 945.  Heirs of Hippocrates 1361.  Wellcome III, 180.