The body of theory on speech production and speech disorder developed prior to Descartes has been so neglected by historians that its very existence is practically unknown today. Yet it provides a framework for understanding the speech process which is not only comprehensive and coherent, but of… read more
John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) work was unknown in 17th–18th century France. In 1827, when Joseph-Marie Degérando (1772–1842) became curious about the relation between the methods respectively of Bulwer and John Wallis (1616–1703), the pioneer oral instructor of the deaf in Britain, he had to query… read more
A pioneer of the language sciences, John Bulwer (1606–1656) published on universal language at the beginning of the English ‘scientific revolution’. The Comenians, centered in Bulwer’s own city of London and known for open communication, were interested in this subject area; yet Bulwer’s contact… read more
John Bulwer (1606–1656) published five books on the semiotics of the human body, with most attention given to gesture. His ideas on gesture have previously been studied from the standpoint of rhetorical theory, but hardly at all in relation to language and cognition. With regard to the cognitive… read more
It would be unfair to characterize John Bulwer (1606–1656) as a dilettante, although he did not achieve all his goals with the deaf. He tried unsuccessfully to find the Spaniard (described by Kenelm Digby in a report of 1644) who taught speech to deaf pupils. As a Royalist during the reign of… read more
