The Pendola Institute is a foundation established for the treatment of severe congenital deafness, located on Via Tomasso Pendola #35-43 in the town center of

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, region of

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

, Italy. It has a long history, starting as a charitable institution founded by the Genoese Scolopi priest Tommaso Pendola (1800-1883) in the early 1820s, and promulgating an oralist therapy for the deaf-mutes. The subsequent decades have modified the funding and scope of activities.

History

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. The building had been first located on Via San Pietro #39, but subsequently moved to the present site, the buildings that used to house the medieval Convent of Santa Margherita. The original building housed and educated 50 deafmute boys. 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 A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state, condition or quality of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show re ...

, with the male component housed in a building on the same street (#62). The oral method, fostered by Pendola, involved

lip reading Lip reading, also known as speechreading, is a technique of understanding a limited range of speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue without sound. Estimates of the range of lip reading vary, with some figures as ...

, was the main method used in Europe during the 19th and most of the 20th century. Some sources claim that

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favored oral tradition, versus sign language methods, because speech was required for confession. After Pendola's death, the name was changed by decree of Umberto I to the Royal Institute Pendola for Deaf Mutes. In 1980 the school was closed and the students were transferred mainly to Istituto Gualandi. The Istituto Pendola was in the process of modernization in 2014.Contrada della Tartuca
Author Paolo Bennati.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendola Siena Buildings and structures in Siena Deaf culture in Italy Schools for the deaf in Italy