The Education of Deaf-mutes in Italy in the 19th Century: Tommaso Pendola in Public School Memory

The article aims to present the history of education of deaf-mutes in Italy, with particular reference to the work of Tommaso Pendola. Father Pendola, in fact, was among the main protagonists of the education of deaf-mutes in Nineteenth-century in Italy. He founded an institute in Siena in 1828 to give physical, moral and pedagogical assistance to boys and girls from all over Italy. After tracing the history of the Institute for the Deaf and Mute in Siena, the contribution aims to highlight how the work of the educator revives in the public school memory through busts, gravestones and monuments.