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First edition, first issue, of the Italian reformer's influential work, which sold over 5,000 copies in the first week of publication. A student of engineering, then medicine, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) became the first woman in Italy to qualify as a medical doctor, graduating in 1896. As part of her work at the University of Rome's psychiatric clinic, Montessori visited the city's asylums to observe children with mental disabilities. This, paired with her intensive study of the writings of earlier physicians, educators, and philosophers like Itard, Séguin, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel, convinced her that any issues encountered when teaching the so-called "ineducable" were merely pedagogical. On 6 January 1907, the first Casa dei Bambini opened, with an initial intake of 50 to 60 children. In spring 1909, while residing at the Villa Montesca with her friends, the philanthropists Alice and Leopoldo Franchetti, Montessori compiled her qualitative research into a single volume. The manuscript was complete within 20 days and its publication funded by the Franchettis, who had it printed by a small local press, Tipografia Lapi in Città di Castello (Buseghin, pp. 84-5). Later the same year, Montessori taught the first of a series of training courses at Montesca, which quickly became a renowned pedagogical institute. "In The Montessori Method... Montessori set forth the theory and practice of the Casa dei Bambini. This book was so widely translated and well First edition, first issue, of the Italian reformer's influential work, which sold over 5,000 copies in the first week of publication. A student of engineering, then medicine, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) became the first woman in Italy to qualify as a medical doctor, graduating in 1896. As part of her work at the University of Rome's psychiatric clinic, Montessori visited the city's asylums to observe children with mental disabilities. This, paired with her intensive study of the writings of earlier physicians, educators, and philosophers like Itard, Séguin, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel, convinced her that any issues encountered when teaching the so-called "ineducable" were merely pedagogical. On 6 January 1907, the first Casa dei Bambini opened, with an initial intake of 50 to 60 children. In spring 1909, while residing at the Villa Montesca with her friends, the philanthropists Alice and Leopoldo Franchetti, Montessori compiled her qualitative research into a single volume. The manuscript was complete within 20 days and its publication funded by the Franchettis, who had it printed by a small local press, Tipografia Lapi in Città di Castello (Buseghin, pp. 84-5). Later the same year, Montessori taught the first of a series of training courses at Montesca, which quickly became a renowned pedagogical institute. "In The Montessori Method... Montessori set forth the theory and practice of the Casa dei Bambini. This book was so widely translated and well received that people across the world began flocking to Rome to observe her ideas in action" (Palmer, p. 225). The later issue sold by Max Bretschneider in Rome has a new slip pasted over the imprint on the title page. The best-selling English translation by Anne E. George was published in 1912, and a revised and enlarged edition, renamed The Discovery of the Child, was published in 1948. READ MORE Tall quarto, pp. 283, [1]. Uncut in original buff printed wrappers, front wrapper and spine preserved, rear wrapper renewed. Housed in a black cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Folding diagram facing p. 48, 15 plates at rear, engraved headpieces, numerous illustrations and diagrams within text. Bookseller's label of Libreria F[rate]lli Bocca of Milan on front cover, contemporary ink ownership signature, "Maria Fabietti Via Spartaco 15", on title page. Front wrapper soiled and frayed at edges, neatly restored along lower edge, contents evenly toned and clean, first 2 plates a little wavy from moisture, paper stock very friable resulting in a handful of closed tears at edges (leaves 1.3, 8.1, 9.5-6) and a few expert Japanese tissue repairs (half-title, 18.5, lower outer corners of last 2 plates): overall a well-preserved copy of a fragile text. M. L. Buseghin, "Alice Hallgarten Franchetti: A Woman Beyond Barriers", in Elena Laurenzi & Manuela Mosca, eds, A Female Activist Elite in Italy (1890-1920), 2022; Joy Palmer, ed., Fifty Major Thinkers on Education: From Confucius to Dewey, 2001.