TARRA, GIULIO. - Priest, educator and writer, b. in Milan on 25 Apr. 1832, d. there on 10 June 1880.

A priest in 1855, he was appointed that same year director of the Institute for the poor deaf-mutes of the province of Milan, to whom he devoted all his industry and zeal, seeking to improve their lot and facilitate their instruction. For this purpose, he replaced the mimic method of Abbot De L'Epée with the pure oral method — and he was the first in Italy to do so — which consists in having language learned from the speech and the lips of the teacher. He also devoted his taste and his popular and neat art as a writer to the education of normal children with a series of works still largely worthy of being read and enjoyed for their open educational intent, even if it sometimes assumes excessive importance: Buoni esempi narrati ai fanciulli (Milan 1871); Dialoghi famigliari e scenici ad uso dei fanciulli italiani (ibid. 1876); Novelle e canti in famiglia (ibid. 1877); Serate liete, novelle e poesie dilettevoli, educative (ibid. 1885); Cento e una storiella al focolare di casa (ibid. 1896); but above all: Letture graduate al fanciullo italiano (3 vols., ibid. 1862) and Racconti di una madre ai suoi figli (ibid. 1862), where the ideas derived from the events of the Italian Risorgimento have effective pages that prelude to De Amicis's Cuore. This book was awarded a prize at the Fifth Italian Pedagogical Congress of 1861. For the education of deaf-mutes, valuable are: Lettere ad un maestro dei sordomuti, in Dell'educazione dei sordomuti in Italia (Siena 1872), and Cenni storici e compendiosa esposizione del metodo seguito per l'educazione dei sordomuti (Milan 1880).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: selected works: G. Fanciulli, Scritti pedagogici scelti del T., 2 vols., Brescia 1934, with extensive introductions; id., Le più belle pagine per l'infanzia e la gioventù, ibid. 1936. Studies: C. Perini, L'abate G. T. e i suoi avversari, Milan 1894; id., G. T. nella sua vita di studente, di sacerdote, di educatore, ibid. 1914; G. Soldatini, A ricordo e osservanza di G. T., ibid. 1914; O. Giacobbe, Manuale di letterat. infantile, 5th ed., Rome 1947, pp. 66-67.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec11_tarra_giulio, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Tarra, giulio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1767}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tarra-giulio} }

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Tarra, Giulio

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