Juan Pablo Bonet was a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 priest and pioneer of education for the deaf. He published the first book on deaf education in 1620 in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

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Juan Pablo Bonet was secretary to Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías

Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frias

Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías was a Spanish nobleman and diplomat.Juan Fernández de Velasco was the son of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco; and of Maria Angela de Aragón y Guzmán El Bueno. He inherited his father's title of Constable of Castile, and was present at the signing of the...

, Constable of Castile

Constable of Castile

Constable of Castile was a title created by John I, King of Castile in 1382, to substitute the title Alférez Mayor del Reino. The constable was the second person in power in the kingdom, after the King, and his responsibility was to command the military in the absence of the ruler.In 1473 Henry IV...

. While serving in the constable's household, Bonet observed the methods of a tutor hired to teach Luis, the constable’s second son, who was deaf from birth. In this wealthy and titled family as well as in others related by marriage or birth were a number of deaf sons and daughters whose parents wanted them educated in addition to their hearing siblings. Some of the deaf sons were in line to inherit the family’s properties, and literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir.

The recorded history of sign language began in 17th Century in Spain, in part with Bonet. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos ("Summary of the letters and the art of teaching speech to the mute") in Madrid. Considered the first modern treaty of phonetics of signed language and the use of signed language to teach speech to the deaf, this book depicted Bonet's form of a manual alphabet. His intent was to further the oral and manual education of deaf people in Spain.

Bonet's system of signs and manual alphabet has influenced many signed languages, such as Spanish Sign Language, French Sign Language, and American Sign Language.

Engravings by Diego de Astor

Diego de Astor

Diego de Astor, of Toledo, studied under Domenico Theotocopuli, and in 1606 engraved, under his superintendence, a 'St. Francis,' after Nic. de Vargas. Astor was engraver to the Mint of Segovia, and was also employed to engrave the royal seals...

of Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (Bonet, 1620):

External links

• Pablo Bonet, J. de (1620) Reduction de las letras y Arte para enseñar á ablar los Mudos, Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (BNE).