In August 1909, Maria Montessori held the First Course of Scientific Pedagogy at Villa Montesca, the property of Barons Alice and Leopoldo Franchetti, in Città di Castello (Perugia). Incorporated into the program of the Franchetti Institute, founded in the same year, this Course was the first within the Courses of Practical Education for Women.
Alice Hallgarten Franchetti, an American philanthropist and educator, was sensitive to the demands of religious modernism, which at the beginning of the 20th century advocated harmonizing Catholicism with the cultural and social advances of the modern era. She had long been involved in educational and humanitarian activities in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Rome, promoted by an aristocratic and intellectual cosmopolitan elite addressing issues of illiteracy and social integration, in a spirit of solidarity towards children and women.
It was within this context that Alice Hallgarten met Maria Montessori and had the opportunity to appreciate and share her ideas and research. As early as 1901, Alice Hallgarten had opened an elementary school at Montesca for the children of the estate’s farmers, and the following year, another school in Rovigliano, also on the family estate. These schools were personally designed by the Baroness, who had studied the most advanced educational methods of the time by visiting various experimental schools in Europe.
Alice Hallgarten had followed with keen interest the experiment of the Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo, to the extent of wanting to implement it in her rural schools. She decided to involve her husband in the endeavor, who visited the first Casa dei Bambini on Via dei Marsi and, after a lengthy observation, convinced Montessori of the urgency of documenting the experiment. The scholar from Chiaravalle, hosted by the Franchettis at Villa Wolkonsky in Rome, wrote Il metodo della pedagogia scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini, published in 1909 by the Lapi Printing House in Città di Castello and presented at the Course of Scientific Pedagogy.
Among the first schools to adopt the Montessori method were the Casa dei Bambini and the Montesca elementary school—the latter hosted the practical exercises of the first Course of Scientific Pedagogy; the Rovigliano elementary school and the Casa dei Bambini established in 1908 by the Franchettis for the children of the employees of the Tela Umbra workshop, opened at Palazzo Tomassini in the center of Città di Castello. Another Montessori experience was that of the elementary school on the Pischiello estate (in the locality of Passignano sul Trasimeno) of the Marquis Ranieri di Sorbello. The Marquise Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello, also a philanthropist of American origin, dedicated her life to entrepreneurial activities that enabled the social redemption of peasant women. In 1903, she launched the Scuola di Ricamo Ranieri di Sorbello (Ranieri di Sorbello Embroidery School) to promote the emancipation of the peasant women working on the estate, while also nurturing her interest in preserving local traditional crafts. Her commitment and foresight, along with her trusted collaborator Carolina Amari, led to the patenting of the Punto Umbro, which was exclusively embroidered on Tela Umbra, produced by Alice Hallgarten’s workshop. It was Alice Hallgarten who organized a meeting between Romeyne and Maria Montessori in May 1907 (Pazzini, 2021). Not surprisingly, among the seventy participants in the first Course of Scientific Pedagogy, were teachers serving in the schools of the two noblewomen: Maria Marchetti and Dina Rinaldi from the Montesca school, and Anna Cinaglia from the Pischiello school.
The Course, which included theoretical, technical, and practical lessons, was aimed at teachers and “ladies” eager to learn the Montessori method and was held every day in August except holidays (Istituto Franchetti in Città di Castello, in “Gioventù Nova”, a.V, n.5, 15 marzo 1909).
The booklet Course of Scientific Pedagogy is a reconstruction of the lesson contents and the debates held on the sidelines. Published in 1909 by the Società Tipografica Editrice of Città di Castello, it was republished in anastatic copy in September 1976 and distributed as an insert attached to issue 12 of the magazine “Vita dell’infanzia”.
As evidenced by the opening speech given by Leopoldo Franchetti on August 1, 1909, the inauguration was a grand celebration in the town. The highest cultural and educational authorities of the province attended the event: the Superintendent of Studies, local authorities, and “friends”. The senator referred to figures committed to the dissemination and elevation of culture such as the poet Vittoria Aganoor Pompilj and Countess Maria Pasolini, a history scholar dedicated to welfare initiatives aimed at women's education to promote their emancipation process.
Supported by representatives of a culturally innovative, dialogue-friendly, and democratic-spirited environment, in 1909, Maria Montessori, through the Course of Scientific Pedagogy, initiated the training of teachers according to the methodological approach she was developing. Over time, her training activities would lead her to address the need for a detailed articulation of the courses and to rely on expert students to assist her as the demand for training became more widespread.
For a more complete reconstruction:
V. P. Babini, L. Lama, Una “donna nuova”. Il femminismo scientifico di Maria Montessori, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2000; S. Bucci, Educazione dell’infanzia e pedagogia scientifica. Da Froebel a Montessori, Roma, Bulzoni Editore, 1990; M. L. Buseghin, Cara Marietta… Lettere di Alice Hallgarten Franchetti (1901-1911) , Città di Castello, Tela Umbra, 2002; C. Pazzini, Maria Montessori tra Romeyne Ranieri di Sorbello e Alice Franchetti dall’imprenditoria femminile modernista alla creazione del Metodo, Roma, Fefè Editore, 2021.
Credits: Emma Perrone
