Juan Pablo Bonet

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Juan Pablo Bonet (Zaragoza (Aragon), circa 1573-1633) was a Spanish priest and pioneer of education for the deaf. He published the first book on deaf education in 1620 in Madrid.

Juan Pablo Bonet was secretary to Juan Fernández de Velasco, the sixth Constable of Castile. 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. That is what inspired him to do what he did do. 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 begins in 17th Century in Spain. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos in Madrid. Considered the first modern treaty of Phonetics and Logopedia, in which a method of oral education of the deaf people by means of the use of manual signs seted out, in form of manual alphabet, to improve the communication of the dumb deaf people.

From the language of signs of Bonet, Charles-Michel of l'Épée its alphabet publishes century XVIII that, basically, has arrived until the present time.

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

A.	B, C, D.	E, F, G.	H, I, L.
M, N.	O, P, Q.	R, S, T.	V, X, Y, Z.

[edit] External links

• "Juan Pablo Bonet". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
• Pablo Bonet, J. de (1620) Reduction de las letras y Arte para enseñar á ablar los Mudos, Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (BNE).

This article incorporates text from the entry Juan Pablo Bonet in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.