Cardano, Girolamo

Hearing; also known in English as Jerome Cardan. Native of Padua. Suggested that deaf people could learn by associating written symbols with objects or pictures. This is significant in that he suggested that language did not depend on speech, and thus laid the theoretical foundation for deaf education. He was influenced by the writings of Rudolphus Agricola (q.v.). Cardano's interest in deaf education undoubtedly arose because his own first-born son (name not known) was deaf.