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Origin and history

The National Institute of the Deaf Youth of Paris (INJS), nicknamed the Institut Saint-Jacques, is one of the oldest institutions in the world dedicated to the education of deaf young people. Founded in 1791, he continued the work of Abbé Charles-Michel de Lsépee (1712–89), who created an informal school on Rue des Moulins in 1772 to develop an innovative teaching method, in competition with the work of Jacob Rodrigue Pereire. Despite financial difficulties and the refusal of the archdiocese of Paris, Louis XVI granted a pension of £6,000 in 1778, then placed the institution under royal protection. A decree of 1785 formalized his transfer to the convent of the Celestines, whose property was allocated to the school after the suppression of the monastery.

In 1791, a decree of the National Assembly officially established the Institution of the Deaf-Mutes of Paris, honouring the Abbé de Lsépe as "Benefactor of the Fatherland". The school of the blind of Valentin Haüy was temporarily associated in 1791, before their separation in 1794. In that year, INJS settled in the former seminary of St. Magloire, at the corner of St. James's streets and of the Two Churches (renamed Rue de l'Abbé-de-l'Afbé-de-l'Afpée in 1846). The buildings, rebuilt in 1823 by architect Antoine-François Peyre, still house the institute today.

THEINJS played a key role in the history of special education. Under the direction of Abbé Sicard (successor of the Sword), then with Jean Itard as a doctor (1800–38), the institution developed pioneering teaching methods. A decree of 1795 extended his model to Bordeaux. The facades, roofs, and interior elements (chapelle, hall des Fêtes) were protected as Historic Monuments in 1989 and 1990, bearing witness to its architectural and educational heritage.

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