BUCCELLI, DOMENICO MAURIZIO. – Scolopian pedagogue, born in Venice on 22 Sept. 1788, died at Ovada on 18 March 1842 in the odour of sanctity. Left an orphan, he received a harsh upbringing. As a young man he devoted himself to the Piarist Schools, where he sought to improve the education of both pupils and teachers.
At the Carcare college, supported by Fr Carosio, where he taught literature for 28 years, Buccelli introduced the first school of the mother tongue six years before such instruction was mandated by law in Piedmont; he proposed a method of language instruction based on easy induction, which he printed in 1824 under the title Ragion della lingua. This work was annotated by Cherubini and Lambruschini but opposed in governmental circles for political reasons. Through his “intermediate” school, Buccelli gave the young a pleasant scholastic environment and strove to develop precocious intellects. He banished trivialities from the classroom and substituted intellectual exercises for the young. In his final years at Ovada he set an example of charity in the hospital and of self-sacrifice for the young.