A communication tool for the deaf and dumb in the early 18th century?
Among the manuscripts in the ULiège Library's holdings is a notebook of pen-and-ink drawings, some enhanced with watercolor, by Leopold Ignace Piers (1663-1732). It features dozens of portraits of notables, laymen and ecclesiastics, town coats-of-arms, animals, coins, foodstuffs, everyday objects and more. All drawings are accompanied by a caption in French. The titles and functions of the figures depicted allow us to date the manuscript to the first quarter of the 18th century.
The fact that so many notables are portrayed in this way seems to show that carnet was linked to a very specific social context. We know that Piers was Lord of Hollingues, a member of a patrician family from the Kortrijk region. We can therefore imagine that the author, undoubtedly a deaf-mute, used this notebook to communicate with other people of his rank. But probably also with illiterate people, which was the case for most of his contemporaries, hence the importance of the drawings.
Pier's epitaph tells us that he was involved in the catechesis of deaf people. We can therefore imagine that he also used his notebook as a teaching aid.
What makes this manuscript particularly remarkable and exceptional is the presence of a gestural alphabet and of signs designating family ties, which the author represents by using the family member concerned to show the gesture designating him or her.
Evidence of gestural languages was rare in this period. It was not until the 1740s that Rodrigues Pereire created an educational method for the deaf children entrusted to his care. As for Abbé de l'Épée, it was in the 1760s that he transformed his home into a specialized school and developed a two-hand alphabet.
ULiège Library, Ms. 2284
Leaf through the manuscript
