The Spanish origins of deaf education: Ponce de Leon, Bonet and a disputed authorship

The first printed book on teaching deaf people to speak came out of Madrid in 1620, written by the secretary of the Constable of Castile. It was not the first method: a Benedictine at Ona had taught deaf pupils Spanish, Latin and Greek two generations earlier, and by the eighteenth century reference works were flatly asserting that the monk, not the secretary, was the true author of the book. This object sets out what the printed record supports, what it only reports, and who was left out of it.