Juan Pablo Bonet

Juan Pablo Bonet  was a Spanish priest and pioneer of education for the deaf.

He published the first book on deaf education in 1620 in Madrid. Juan Pablo Bonet was secretary to Juan Fernández de Velasco, the sixth Constable of Castile. While serving in the constable’s household, Bonet observed the methods of a tutor hired to teach Luis, the constable’s second son, who was deaf from birth. In this wealthy and titled family as well as in others related by marriage or birth were a number of deaf sons and daughters whose parents wanted them educated in addition to their hearing siblings. Some of the deaf sons were in line to inherit the family’s properties, and literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir.