Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1447.7

FRANZ HERRMANN CZECH (1788-1847) Versinnlichte Denk- und Sprachlehre : mit Anwendung auf die Religions- und Sittenlehre und auf das Leben. Gedructkt und in Comision der Mechitaristen Congreations-Buchhandlung 1838 1st edition, 2nd issue. 441 p., 72 leaves of plates (some folded) : ill. 29 cm.

Apparently unrecorded first edition, second issue with cancel title-page (first 1836) of this remarkable and very rare work on teaching the deaf and dumb, written by Czech, the professor in charge of the Deaf and Dumb Institute in Vienna. This was at the time the most prestigious institution of the type in Austria, and one of the earliest schools to be opened. Whilst laying out a system by which to teach the deaf and dumb, the work also stresses the importance of training those responsible for deaf and dumb children in that system. Czech’s extensive and thorough work sets out the teaching system in minutest detail, the 72 extremely find plates being an integral part of it. Almost every plate depicts numerous figures or scenes. These illustrate both the actual signs to be made to convey words, and situations that explain the concepts of the signs. The work principally concentrates on the grammar of expression, so that these ‘explanations’ are extremely pertinent and necessary. They often take the form of a complicated situational scene, in all cases the engraving of which is executed in clear and fine detail. These are necessary when trying to explain to a deaf and dumb person the grammatical niceties of, for instances, definite articles, personal nouns, different noun cases, active and passive moods, as well as the concepts of intention and purpose (pl.38), cause and effect (pl.39) and misuse of free will and the effects that follow (pl.49). Plates 54-72 are perhaps easier to follow (although no less attractive to view), forming a pictorial dictionary covering plants, trees, poisonous plants, birds, fish, mammals, trades (on five plates), social positions, countries, and people of the world. The final plate is a wonderful geographic representation of world-wide institutions for the deaf, dumb, and blind, together with notes on their teachers, while the extremely fine frontispiece depicts Czech himself in the process of teaching six angelic-looking deaf and dumb children. OCLC does not record any copies of this 1838 edition.

John Martin M.D. Endowment