Ottavio Giovanni Battista Assarotti (25 October 1753, in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

24 January 1829) was an Italian philanthropist and founder of the first school for

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

people in Italy.

Life

After qualifying himself for the church, he entered the society of the

Piarists The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the Catholic Church founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz ...

, Padri of the "Scuole Pie", who devoted themselves to the training of the young. In 1801 he heard of the Abbe Sicard's education of deaf people in

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, and resolved to do something similar in Italy. He began with one pupil, and by degrees collected a small number around him. In 1805,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, hearing of his endeavors, ordered a

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

to give him a school-house and funds for supporting twelve scholars, to be taken from the convent revenues. This order was poorly attended to until 1811, when it was renewed, and the following year Assarotti, with a considerable number of pupils, took possession of the new school. He continued there until his death in 1829. A pension, which had been awarded him by the king of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, was bequeathed to his scholars. He introduced a version of methodical signing.

References

1753 births 1829 deaths Italian philanthropists 18th-century Genoese people {{philanthropist-stub