PENDOLA, TOMMASO. - Piarist, b. at Genova on 23 June 1800, d. at Siena on 12 Feb. 1882.
While still very young he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Siena, where he gave a new direction to philosophical studies, orienting them toward the more distinctly Christian philosophers, such as St. Thomas and St. Anselm, then almost completely ignored; in 1860 he also became rector of the University. P., however, has remained more famous for his work on behalf of the deaf-mute. Prompted by the work of Assarotti in Genova, he too conceived the idea of founding an institute for the deaf-mute of Tuscany, and this came about in Siena in 1828, with official approval from the grand-ducal government in 1844. He wrote a Storia dell'arte d'istruire i sordomuti (Siena 1855), as well as many other publications on the same subject: Metodica applicata alla istruzione ed educazione del sordomuto (there, 1869) and Corso di pedagogia speciale ad uso degli insegnanti dei sordomuti (there, 1881), in which, abandoning the method of gestures that he had practiced for forty years, he proclaimed the oral method as the sole means of redeeming the deaf-mute and restoring him to society; he even founded a highly esteemed journal entitled Dell'educazione dei sordomuti in Italia, which began publication in 1872.