Braille, Louis

Braille, Louis
born Jan. 4, 1809, Coupvray, near Paris, France
died Jan. 6, 1852, Paris

French educator who developed the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind.

Himself blinded at the age of three in an accident, he went to Paris in 1819 to attend the National Institute for Blind Children, and from 1826 he taught there. Braille adapted a method created by Charles Barbier to develop his own simplified system.

Braille, portrait bust by an unknown artist

Archiv fur Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin

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▪ French educator
born Jan. 4, 1809, Coupvray, near Paris, Fr.
died Jan. 6, 1852, Paris
 French educator who developed a system of printing and writing that is extensively used by the blind and that was named for him.

      Braille was himself blinded at the age of three in an accident that occurred while he was playing with tools in his father's harness shop. A tool slipped and plunged into his right eye. Sympathetic ophthalmia and total blindness followed. Nevertheless, he became a notable musician and excelled as an organist. Upon receiving a scholarship, he went in 1819 to Paris to attend the National Institute for Blind Children, and from 1826 he taught there.

       Braille became interested in a system of writing, exhibited at the school by Charles Barbier, in which a message coded in dots symbolizing phonetic sounds was embossed on cardboard. When he was 15, he worked out an adaptation, written with a simple instrument, that met the needs of the sightless. He later took this system, which consists of a six-dot code in various combinations, and adapted it to musical notation. He published a treatise on his type system in 1829, and in 1837 he published a three-volume Braille edition of a popular history schoolbook.

      During the last years of his life Braille was ill with tuberculosis. A century after his death, Braille's remains (minus his hands, which were kept in his birthplace of Coupvray) were moved to Paris for burial in the Panthéon.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Braille,Louis — Braille, Louis. 1809 1852. French musician, educator, and inventor of a writing and printing system for blind or visually impaired people (1829). He lost his sight at the age of three. * * * …   Universalium

  • Braille, Louis — • French educator and inventorof the system of writing in raised or relief points for the blind (1809 1852) Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Braille, Louis — ► (1809 52) Profesor francés. Creó un nuevo sistema de escritura en relieve y, posteriormente, lo aplicó a la notación musical. (V. alfabeto Braille.) * * * (4 ene. 1809, Coupvray, cerca de París, Francia–6 ene. 1852, París). Educador francés que …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Braille, Louis —  (1809–1852) French inventor of the embossed reading system for the blind …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • Braille — Rampe en bois gravée en braille affichant le mot « premier ». Caractéristiques Type Code, écriture en relief Langue(s) Plusieurs …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Louis Braille — Naissance 4 Janvier 1809 Coupvray Décès 6 Janvier 1852 (à 43 ans) Paris Nationalité …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Louis Braille — Louis Braille …   Wikipedia Español

  • braille — [ braj ] n. m. et adj. inv. • 1927; pour écriture ou alphabet Braille, du nom de l inventeur ♦ Alphabet conventionnel en points saillants (également applicable aux chiffres, à la musique et la sténo), à l usage des aveugles. Apprendre le braille …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • BRAILLE (L.) — BRAILLE LOUIS (1809 1852) Professeur à l’Institution royale des jeunes aveugles de Paris, aveugle lui même, Louis Braille a donné son nom à un système de notation en relief à l’usage des personnes atteintes de cécité et applicable à l’alphabet,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Louis Braille —     Louis Braille     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Louis Braille     French educator and inventor, born 4 January 1809, at Coupvray, Seine et Marne, France; died 6 January, 1852. He became blind when three years of age, and at the age of thirteen… …   Catholic encyclopedia

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