DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0130
102 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
of embossed typography had made but very little progress. It is singular that in
this book no mention is made of the author's predecessor, Haiiy, to whom, we should
not forget, the idea of finger-reading is due. Between the years 1821 and 1840 very-
little printing was done by this institution, except religious books, and music, after the
system of notation by letters and ciphers. L'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles de Paris, since
its foundation in 1784, has at times been in a deplorable condition, but, about the year
1840, it underwent a thorough reorganisation, and is now, under the able manage-
ment of jVI. Dufau, justly entitled to the front rank of institutions of this class in Europe,
from its usefulness, no less than its age. A radical reform in the printing department
has been made: M. Dufau has devised a system of types consisting of capitals and
lower-case Roman letters, and has greatly improved the character of the embossing.
The French books are now well embossed, sharp, clear, and durable. They have also
been so much reduced in bulk that they are offered at a moderate price. M. Dufau has
proposed to print a standard library for the blind, to consist of ten volumes in quarto,
for elementary instruction, and ten volumes for higher instruction. The first series is
nearly completed. The second series of this library, not yet printed, it is to be hoped
will soon follow. For the above lists, and other interesting information respecting the
Paris typography for the blind, the jury is much indebted to a valuable pamphlet
published by M. J. Guadet, entitled L'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles de Paris, son
Histoire et ses Proctdes d} Enseignement, Paris, 1850, 8vo, pp. 115. At Vienna an
institution for the blind was established in 1804, but the jury is not aware of any
printing having been executed in Austria before the year 1830 or 1831. About this
date, the intelligent publishers, Treusinsky, of Vienna, embossed sheets with the Lord's
Prayer in various languages, in Roman letters, and afterwards printed works for elementary
instruction. The subject has been recently taken up by the imperial printing-office, and
several volumes have been published, but the jury are unable to give a bibliographical
description of them. In 1806, M. Haiiy was invited to establish institutions for the
blind at Berlin and St. Petersburgh. His system of instruction was adopted in each of
these institutions, and the books used were, for a considerable time, supplied from the press
of Paris. Both of these institutions, in a pecuniary point of view, were unsuccessful to
M. Haiiy, and, in 1808, he returned to Paris, and for a while resided in quiet with his
brother, the celebrated Abbe. Haiiy. The jury have not been able to traee the progress
of the printing for the blind at Berlin or St. Petersburgh, hut they learn that the amount
of matter embossed in Germany, until very recently, did not exceed half of the New
Testament. It was in Great Britain and in the United States that the first improve-
ments were made in embossed typography; and only within the last fifteen years, that
the blind generally have derived any considerable advantages from books. Before 1826,
when Mr. James Gall, of Edinburgh, first began to turn his attention to the intellectual
and moral education of the blind, it is believed that not a single blind person in any public
institution of this country or America could read by means of embossed characters. To
Mr. Gall is due the credit of reviving this art. With the most commendable zeal,
patience, and perseverance, he canvassed the form of every letter, until at length he
adopted his angular alphabet. He seems, from his own Historical Sketch of the Origin
and Progress of the Literature of the Blind, Edinburgh, 1834, 8vo, pp. 388, to have
experimented long and patiently with a great variety of arbitrary and Roman alphabets,
with a view of finding one sufficiently simple and tangible for finger reading. On the
28th of September, 1827, he published A First Book for teaching the Art of Reading to
the Blind; with a short statement of the principles of the art of printing as here applied
to the sense of touch. Edinburgh, published by James Gall. This is believed to be the
first book printed for the blind in the English language. It is a small oblong octavo
of embossed typography had made but very little progress. It is singular that in
this book no mention is made of the author's predecessor, Haiiy, to whom, we should
not forget, the idea of finger-reading is due. Between the years 1821 and 1840 very-
little printing was done by this institution, except religious books, and music, after the
system of notation by letters and ciphers. L'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles de Paris, since
its foundation in 1784, has at times been in a deplorable condition, but, about the year
1840, it underwent a thorough reorganisation, and is now, under the able manage-
ment of jVI. Dufau, justly entitled to the front rank of institutions of this class in Europe,
from its usefulness, no less than its age. A radical reform in the printing department
has been made: M. Dufau has devised a system of types consisting of capitals and
lower-case Roman letters, and has greatly improved the character of the embossing.
The French books are now well embossed, sharp, clear, and durable. They have also
been so much reduced in bulk that they are offered at a moderate price. M. Dufau has
proposed to print a standard library for the blind, to consist of ten volumes in quarto,
for elementary instruction, and ten volumes for higher instruction. The first series is
nearly completed. The second series of this library, not yet printed, it is to be hoped
will soon follow. For the above lists, and other interesting information respecting the
Paris typography for the blind, the jury is much indebted to a valuable pamphlet
published by M. J. Guadet, entitled L'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles de Paris, son
Histoire et ses Proctdes d} Enseignement, Paris, 1850, 8vo, pp. 115. At Vienna an
institution for the blind was established in 1804, but the jury is not aware of any
printing having been executed in Austria before the year 1830 or 1831. About this
date, the intelligent publishers, Treusinsky, of Vienna, embossed sheets with the Lord's
Prayer in various languages, in Roman letters, and afterwards printed works for elementary
instruction. The subject has been recently taken up by the imperial printing-office, and
several volumes have been published, but the jury are unable to give a bibliographical
description of them. In 1806, M. Haiiy was invited to establish institutions for the
blind at Berlin and St. Petersburgh. His system of instruction was adopted in each of
these institutions, and the books used were, for a considerable time, supplied from the press
of Paris. Both of these institutions, in a pecuniary point of view, were unsuccessful to
M. Haiiy, and, in 1808, he returned to Paris, and for a while resided in quiet with his
brother, the celebrated Abbe. Haiiy. The jury have not been able to traee the progress
of the printing for the blind at Berlin or St. Petersburgh, hut they learn that the amount
of matter embossed in Germany, until very recently, did not exceed half of the New
Testament. It was in Great Britain and in the United States that the first improve-
ments were made in embossed typography; and only within the last fifteen years, that
the blind generally have derived any considerable advantages from books. Before 1826,
when Mr. James Gall, of Edinburgh, first began to turn his attention to the intellectual
and moral education of the blind, it is believed that not a single blind person in any public
institution of this country or America could read by means of embossed characters. To
Mr. Gall is due the credit of reviving this art. With the most commendable zeal,
patience, and perseverance, he canvassed the form of every letter, until at length he
adopted his angular alphabet. He seems, from his own Historical Sketch of the Origin
and Progress of the Literature of the Blind, Edinburgh, 1834, 8vo, pp. 388, to have
experimented long and patiently with a great variety of arbitrary and Roman alphabets,
with a view of finding one sufficiently simple and tangible for finger reading. On the
28th of September, 1827, he published A First Book for teaching the Art of Reading to
the Blind; with a short statement of the principles of the art of printing as here applied
to the sense of touch. Edinburgh, published by James Gall. This is believed to be the
first book printed for the blind in the English language. It is a small oblong octavo