Pendola Institute, Siena

It has a long history, starting as a charitable institution founded by the Genoese Scolopi priest Tommaso Pendola (1800-1883) in the early 1820s,[1] and promulgating an oralist therapy for the deaf-mutes.

The institute was founded with the patronage and guidance of Count Celso Petrucci Bargagli and other donors, and the leadership of Pendola.

By 1828, Pendola became the first director of the Royal Institute for the Deaf and Dumb (Sordomuti) of Siena, approved by a decree of Grand Duke Leopold II.

[2] By 1835, a parallel institute for girls was established under the direction of nuns of the Congregation of Daughters of Charity of San Vincenzo de’ Paoli, with the male component housed in a building on the same street (#62).

Some sources claim that Roman Catholicism favored oral tradition, versus sign language methods, because speech was required for confession.