Sermo mirabilis, or, The silent language whereby one may learn in the space of six hours, how to impart his mind to his Friend in any Language, English, Latin, French, Dutch, &c. tho never so deep and dangerous a Secret, without the least Noise, Word or Voice; and without the Knowledge of any in the company. Being an art kept secret for several ages in Padua, and now made published only to the wise and prudent, who will not expose it, as a Prostitute, to every Foolish and Ignorant Fellow.  by Monsieur La Fin, once secretary to His Eminence, Cardinal Richlieu. London, Tho. Salusbury, 1692. Charles La Fin 1692

Charles de la Fin or La Fin(?fl.1640s-1690s?) used different parts of the body to indicate letters, so ‘L’ was represented by the Lip, ‘W’ by the wrist etc. The vowels were the same as in modern British fingerspelling, indicated by the thumb and fingers. La Fin describes in his book how he taught a young gentleman the art, who was then able to use it to woo a lady in the presence of her family.

La Fin was, according to the book’s title page, sometime secretary to Cardinal Richelieu (d.1642), and according to a book called More good and true news from Ireland where a letter of 1641 from him to his brother James appears, he was “page to the young Prince of Orange” who was later to become William II, Prince of Orange, father of William III King of England.  His brother James was secretary to the exiled French Duke of Valette.  I cannot be certain but it seems that this Charles is the same person as the author of Sermo mirabilis, although this book was written some fifty years later.

The dedication to William and Mary shows La Fin to have been a firm supporter of the House of Orange.

I have photographed the whole thing available as a pdf here Sermo mirabilis – see if you find this system usable!

Didascolocophus : or the deaf and dumb mans tutor, to which is added a discourse of the nature and number of double consonants: both which tracts being the first (for what the author knows) that have been published upon either of the subjects. Oxford, printed at the Theater, 1680 by George Dalgarno 1680

Dalgarno (c.1616–1687) was born in Aberdeen but spent much of his life teaching at a private grammar school in Oxford.  In Didascolocophus, (‘teacher of the deaf’) Dalgarno fits the language of the deaf into his general scheme for a theory of signs, what he calls ‘sematology’.

Etymology:  < Greek σηματ-, σῆμα sign + -logy

Dalgarno’s knowledge of and work on ‘brachygraphy’ – shorthand – brought him into contact with some of the people who later formed the nucleus of the Royal Society, such as Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury and John Wallis, who devised a method for teaching deaf people.

Dalgarno was buried in the parish of Mary Magdalen, Oxford.

David Cram, ‘Dalgarno, George (c.1616–1687)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7023, accessed 2 July 2013]

As we have contributed a number of items to the DCAL sign alphabet exhibition 2nd- 25th of July, in the UCL north cloisters, we will be putting up some information about the items on the blog over the next days, based on the display label notes, with some pictures.

The first book has featured in a blog entry before:

Chirologia; or, The naturall language of the hand. Composed of the speaking motions and discoursing gestures thereof. Whereunto is added Chironomia; or, The art of manuall rhetoricke. Consisting of the naturall expressions, digested by art in the hand, as the chiefest instrument of eloquence, by historicall manifesto’s, exemplified out of the authentique registers of common life, and civill conversation, with types, or chirograms. A long-wish’d for illustration of this argument. By J.B., Gent. Philochirosophus… London, printed by Tho. Harper, 1644. by John Bulwer  1644

Bulwer (bap. 1606, d. 1656), was a doctor, who lived around Gray’s Inn in London.

One of only 31 known copies, Chirologia (which means ‘hand discourse’) was the first book in English that was devoted to the language of sign and gesture. It is possible that our copy belonged to the Deaf University of London graduate Abraham Farrar, as there is a note in Ephphatha (p.860 Winter 1925) says he is selling his collection of books, including his copy of Bulwer for £200.

Etymology:  < French chirologie, < Greek χειρο  –hand + -λογία – discourse.

“As the tongue speaketh to the ear, so the gesture speaketh to the eye.”  So Francis Bacon quoted King James in his introduction to The Advancement of Learning.  Aristotle had omitted gestures from his Organon & Bacon saw the close relationship between gestures & the mind.  Bacon’s gentle criticism of Aristotle here was the inspiration for Bulwer to write his Chirologia, a term he introduced into English.  It has been said of Bulwer that “his works more nearly approach modern psychology in character than those of his illustrious philosophical contemporaries.”

(Graham Richards, ‘Bulwer, John (bap. 1606, d. 1656)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3934, accessed 12 June 2013])

Bulwer’s social circle seems to have been around Gray’s Inn, a short walk from the Action on Hearing Loss Library. He was buried in the nearby church of St.Giles in the Fields. This would have been the previous building on the site, the present building dating from 1730-34.

In The Comely Frontispiece: The Emblematic Title-page in England, 1550-1660, by Margery Corbett, the engraving by William Marshall is explained –

Standing on the plinth, l., six-breasted Nature with one hand pressed to her bosom gushes milk.  […]

Readers must have found it over-elaborate and even puzzling. […]  The theme, however is clear: the contrast between natural Language, left, unkempt and without graces, and right, Language rendered comely by gesture and deportment.  The two combine in the Well of Chiroscopy, the wisdom of the hand.

Nature speaking, as mother of natural language, is portrayed as Ephesian Artemis […] Her foot, placed on the wheel of Fate or Fortune, is intended to signify that the gifts of fortune are the same as the gifts of nature or may supplement them. […] The presence of the tree behind her is explained by the tradition that the oracle at Dodona gave her answers by rustling the leaves of an old oak tree, ‘Dodona’s Oak’, and thus spoke in the words of Nature.

Polyhymnia was the muse of eloquence.

The full text is available here.

Click for a larger size.