louis ix had a particular goal in mind when he founded the hospice des quinze - vingts in the mid - thirteenth century .
mark otool has drawn attention to the close relationship between the king s own experience of chronic illness and his perception of the blind.17 he maintained a  firm belief that those who suffered from any affliction  including blindness  were worthy of charity if they endured their afflictions with patient devotion and humility like he had.18 the quinze - vingts 
those who gave money to musicians there , and to those quinze - vingts beggars on the street , recognised that they were activating its spirit through sound .
blind members and their sighted carers literally gave their voices to the quinze - vingts community when they entered .
voice engaged in prayer , music and street - begging on behalf of the collective institution .
quinze - vingts members were the focus of a significant number of bequests from the upper echelons of the bourgeois community of paris for the foundation of memorial masses.19 when the memorial mass was sung in the hospice chapel , the musicians from the community transported the soul of the benefactor to salvation through the sound of their blind - afflicted selves .
the affective vocal quality of the blind musician s performance was directly replicated in the behaviour of the institutional space .
this was primarily ritualistic , involving a specific initiation process , communal attendance at mass , bell ringing , and a particular moral code .
quinze - vingts remained distinct from other religious houses through its particular sense of autonomy .
quinze - vingts fought off other blind houses ( six - vingts , for example , a house for 
120 blind people founded in 1292 by renaut barbou the elder ) for the most powerful right to sound the blind voice.20 quinze - vingts members saw themselves as retaining the uppermost privilege amongst other blind institutions to harness their own 
mark otool has explained :  rather than marginalize the blind residents , this community was designed to care for them and even showcase their religiosity.21 this was reflected in the unique administrative structure of the institution allowing the blind , supported by the sighted , an important say in the running of the site . during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries ,
the potent voicing of the collective quinze - vingts community remained an important feature of the urban landscape.22 the presence of quinze - vingts on the street still remained explicitly connected to the spirituality of blindness . in 1744 , for example , a group of quinze - vingts celebrated the king s return from the german war front . 

lord restore our sight that we may see the king , for just one moment , so that we no longer complain to you , that we have lost it : you will not be able to find , lord , our requests strange;when those least able to hear have the pleasureof hearing the praises . 
 encoded within the song are all the characteristics of the spiritualised quinze - vingts  self. blindness is viewed as a way of praising the divine kingdom .
these praises are deliberately bold because they need to be heard by all ( even  those least able to hear ) .
quinze - vingts blindness was still expressed in the form of a spiritualised speech - act . yet
, quinze - vingts musicians had also become closely associated with the more secular world of the burlesque .
quinze - vingts musicians could be seen and heard on the pont neuf , at the caf des aveugles and , as we have seen , at saint ovid s fair.24 these appearances were influenced by the mediaeval tradition of the french blind farce.25 in this genre the singing blind beggar ( played by a sighted man ) was belittled through the appearance of a sighted guide who reveals the blind man to be morally unworthy of help .
it is possible , however , to interpret the performance at the saint ovid s fair as somewhat more nuanced in meaning . by masquerading as singing blind beggars ( dressed up and led by their instruments ) , the quinze - vingts blind were recalling the genre whilst also maintaining their traditional style of performance . from the audiences point of view
, the instrumental group resembles the farcical combination of passive blind beggars ( the blind playing the sighted playing the blind ) led by a sighted guide ( the musical instrument ) .
the musical instrument is the ideal bodily accompaniment because , as in the original farce , it  speaks for the blind man . from the blind s perspective , however , the costumes and the instruments are used to  act up their traditional role as blind - afflicted selves .
double bodies , enhancing the traditional quinze - vingts quality of bodily affliction by morphing with the blind body.26 thus , the grotesque body of the carnivalesque was , from the blind person s point of view , not necessarily contradictory to the suffering blind bodily figure emblematic of the quinze - vingts institution .
form , still resided deep within quinze - vingts bodies that continued to reinvigorate themselves on the burlesque stage .
double body form was out of place in the new enlightenment world of idealistic lingual purity .
it is possible that hay saw , not only the belittling of the blind , but a dislocated sound and sight in the performance at saint ovid . here
the voice of the quinze - vingts musician had a particular potency which sometimes transcended the presence of the physical body to which it belonged .
hay was not alone in his fear of the  raucous voice . during the later part of the eighteenth century
, it was identified as a serious problem in the urban environment . in his 1783 essay ,
tableau de paris , louis - sbastien mercier expressed concern at some of the sounds and sights of parisian street life.27 he explained that he was deeply embarrassed by the number of beggars in the city who spilled out onto the street during the day from their various institutional houses .
he made a specific attack on the  mendiants valides [  able - bodied beggars ] who he saw as exploitative of everyday people.28 this was obvious in their physical demeanour which he described as ghastly and frightening .
 they follow you in the streets slowly uttering the sacred name of god in an unnatural , sorrowful , and monotonous voice.29 mercier saw such beggars as duplicitous .
if you followed the beggars into the cabarets at night you would see and hear their violent behaviour .
the lame person has discarded his crutch , the blind man his patch , the hunchback his horsehair hump , the one - armed person takes the violin , the dumb signal a frenetic lack of restraint 
they boast about taxes removed from public sensitivity , violence that they inflict on compassionate and gullible souls .
they pass on their secrets to each other ; they repeat their pitiful roles with disrespectful outbursts of laughter.30 
 mercier s negative characterisation of the mendiants valides is through a figure of vocal and bodily separation .
the whining voice of the beggar appears to come from a source outside the beggar s human self.31 the bodies of the figures move about like dismembered limbs .
the beggars resemble mechanistic puppets , figures of the freudian uncanny.32 there is something frightening and deathly entering the beggar s human selves .
not only does the  voice sound horrible but it takes on a violent life of its own through secret communication and revolting laughter .
it is possible that quinze - vingts musicians were amongst those depicted in this performance .
voices are no longer recognised as spiritually meaningful , but overbearing and threatening . to a certain extent ,
mercier attempted to silence this kind of voice through his own condemnation in the text .
the lame person has discarded his crutch , the blind man his patch , the hunchback his horsehair hump , the one - armed person takes the violin , the dumb signal a frenetic lack of restraint 
they boast about taxes removed from public sensitivity , violence that they inflict on compassionate and gullible souls .
they pass on their secrets to each other ; they repeat their pitiful roles with disrespectful outbursts of laughter.30 mercier s reading reflects the anti - clericalism of the immediate post - revolution.33 the violence of these characters is caused by god .
what is heard in their chattering speech is the hideous voice of an unseen god who corrupts the human form .
it is the violent voice , however , that is the pivotal subject of mercier s description .
it allows him to heighten the emotional level of the text and to create a sense of the threatening ( the beggars ) and the threatened ( himself and the public ) . in hay
s eyes and ears , the quinze - vingts musicians at saint ovid s fair might also have posed a threat .
they presented a literal voice that was shrill and confronting , but also a figurative voice that was inherently problematic from a bourgeois political and social point of view .
hay s response was to desire another voice in the form of  harmonious concerts that might drown these musicians out .
hay believed he could help all the blind in this aim and he demonstrated with his work at the institute for blind youth that his programmes could be a success .
these were closely constructed according to his philanthropic belief in human happiness and the power of the sciences and the arts to transform people s lives .
the blind poor could learn a respectable trade through appropriate training . yet , like mercier , he was also expressing a certain anxiety about public health common amongst the post - revolutionary bourgeoisie : this was that the voice of the blind must be silenced or soothed .
it is probable that hay heard the ugly , confused tones of popular speech , the visceral cry of birth and death in the music .
this was  bad music producing sounds far too closely related to the uncivilised cycles of bodily transformation .
in his educational manifesto he was later to write :  it is probably a lack of principles that reduce some to rushing around the streets going from door to door shattering ears with an out - of - tune instrument or a raucous voice , trying to obtain small change often given to them in return for quiet.34 hay s interpretation of the quinze - vingts voice was that it represented a corrupted body .
cured through the implementation of training programmes within the institution and carefully controlled public presentation .
catherine kudlick has traced its period of development from the middle of the eighteenth century to the cholera outbreaks of the mid - nineteenth century.35 kudlick explains that ideas relating to public health were initially furnished in the enlightenment in an attempt to improve poor people s lives.36 the revolution brought with it the turbulence that would require these ideas to be put into practice .
it also brought an increasing division between the rich ( the givers of health ) and the poor ( the recipients of health ) .
disease in the urban environment had been attributed to the behaviour and existence of the poor since the seventeenth century .
as foucault has famously demonstrated , confinement was considered an effective means for the suppression of both poverty and disease.37 by the time of the revolution , quinze - vingts was administered entirely separately from the official houses for the poor , the hpitaux gnraux .
nevertheless , it was considered similarly poor and diseased by the authorities on the basis of its perceived antisocial behaviour.38 the enlightenment culture of signs was now embedded in the language of the law.39 those unable to conform to an acceptable code of behaviour were considered close to savages and treated as 
ill. much of this political viewpoint was initially expressed in concern over the religious nature of its character . at stake
just prior to the revolution the then superior general , the grand almoner cardinal de rohan , had been accused by the parlements of serious financial corruption during the hospice s move to the rue de charenton .
an enquiry had been ordered.40 further problems , however , emerged later in the behaviour of the blind internal administrators , the jurors .
frres , to swear allegiance to the institution in the manner of a religious brotherhood .
the question constantly posed by authorities was :  is there good order and decency within the hospital?41 such a question undermined the independent voice of the jurors . on 5 november 1790
the institution was officially placed under the protection of the national assembly [ assemble nationale ] and the jurors continued meeting unofficially .
petition aside , quinze - vingts , now situated in one of the poorest quartiers of paris , was viewed by the state as an important participant in the new post - revolutionary culture of bienfaisance.42 like many of the parish - based institutions for poor - relief , quinze - vingts was transferred to the paris commune s municipal commission [ commission municipale ] in 1791 , which employed state commissioners to liaise with local clerical administrators to instil civic pride .
this move sparked protest amongst quinze - vingts members , who resented the gaze of any specific administrator , religious or secular , appointed without their permission.43 during this time , the paris department had also received a complaint from a blind couple , m. gauthier and mme lidelle , who had been excluded from the institution by the members themselves during the turbulent period of institutional relocation.44 the jurors had expelled at least four members for marrying without their authorisation .
this move went unreported during the affair , but the newly established committee of public assistance [ comit des secours publics ] was subsequently informed of the expulsions . in 1793 , the committee recommended suppression of the institution.45 of most concern was the perceived inappropriate behaviour of the jurors .
it was the jurors who had created the need for the original enquiry , the committee complained , by expelling members who had rights to accommodation within the institution s grounds .
they were also in agreement with complaints made by the commune clerk that the institution was deeply undemocratic , privileging only a few blind people from paris.46 the report by the committee of public assistance included a scathing attack on the institution s 
the institution was a collective body of sick individuals : 
 so many people of any age or sex , most destined to live in idleness , can only be mutually depraved thus piled up ( if i may use this expression ) in cramped and enclosed conditions . also , for some years now , there have been serious complaints concerning the licentious life led in this house .
the disturbances had inevitably grown in recent times as a result of the spirit of independence , division and anarchy which was adopted there.47 
 such a statement recalled the bodily sounds and images of the mendiants valides as described by mercier .
though the individual blind self remained connected to its collective quinze - vingts home , it now belonged to a diseased group of citizens who created an extreme level of aggressive noise through unregulated behaviour . by recognising the violent voice in the dynamics of the quinze - vingts space ,
the committee of public assistance also implied the need for the firm voice of authority .
so many people of any age or sex , most destined to live in idleness , can only be mutually depraved thus piled up ( if i may use this expression ) in cramped and enclosed conditions .
also , for some years now , there have been serious complaints concerning the licentious life led in this house .
the disturbances had inevitably grown in recent times as a result of the spirit of independence , division and anarchy which was adopted there.47 yet suppression was avoided .
there was one authoritarian voice amongst the post - revolutionary who cherished the voice of the quinze - vingts blind .
the reasons given for closing the institution were not plausible , it explained.48 the hospice had special qualities that should be preserved :  humanity , justice and the general interest call for the preservation of this precious hospital.49 the system of jurors , previously attacked for its insularity , was suddenly praised for its qualities of corporative self - regulation :  they support each other and watch over each other ; if there is a disturbance they are alerted immediately as it is in everyone 's interest to bring it to an end  .50 in response to the criticism that the institution was only for the privileged few , observers replied that , as well as accepting blind people from departments beyond the paris zone , the institution could act as a model for the establishment of other similar institutions throughout the country , as it had originally in the middle ages .
one , a m. maynier , for example , had  raised his voice for the protection of the unfortunate and oppressed blind.51 the notion of voice here implies sympathy and compassion .
citizens should join their voices with those of quinze - vingts described later in the document as 
such political authorities recognised the blind voice in much the same manner as mediaeval listeners did .
they acknowledged that the blind voice expressed at quinze - vingts played an important role in society and should be cared for .
quinze - vingts members , in turn , situated themselves within this revolutionary call for human rights . in demanding their right to a voice ,
they referred not only to their original charter of spiritual blind privilege ; they also referred to revolutionary observations , enshrined in the declaration of the rights of man [ dclaration des droits de lhomme ] , acknowledging all men ( including  les malheureux ) the right to a voice .
they echoed the parliamentary observation that some citizens required humanitarian assistance and a sympathetic ear from those in political control . to raise
one s voice was to stage a political act of empowerment , as conveyed in the meaning of 
la voix as a term of personal enfranchisement (  donner la voix means  to vote. ) such defiant voices , however , commenced as soon as quinze - vingts was placed under enquiry in 1789 .
the blind asserted their voices as soon as they began to be perceived as a threat . in 1790 , the quinze - vingts blind wrote a long letter to the national assembly complaining about their treatment.52 it was lodged by a lawyer and signed by twelve members of the jurors : franois monier , franois gonoro , jean prevt , louis godevier , franois hoyez , pierre de longue , nicolas chadrin , franois crevier , jean louis barre , pierre le bros , jean louis baudoin , and caizergue . for ten years
 this class of men whose fate and misfortune are so moving for thinking souls , could hope that it would always be comforted in its adversity.53 they requested that their original form of administration be restored and attacks on their members be immediately stopped .
they asked that their special status , conferred on them by the declaration of a king [ dclaration du roi ] , should be given the direct protection of the national assembly .
brothers [  frres aveugles ] wrote a second petition to the national assembly in 1792 , demanding to be placed under the administration of the departments as a whole , not under the scrutiny of the local municipality , emphasising that their institution was established for  all the blind of the empire.54 as if to demonstrate their desired independence , they had their demands transcribed by a sighted member of their community , instead of printed , and deposited the document themselves rather than through a lawyer .
they signed their declaration not with a list of names but with the imperative phrase 
et ferez justice. during the immediate post - revolutionary period , quinze - vingts members played crucial roles in maintaining their independence . in 1802 , they wrote to protest against the amalgamation with the institute for blind youth .
perpetual celibacy , since they would have to abandon their wives and children for a life of repression.55  it offends your sensitivity , citoyen consul , that the blind are treated as old people who will end their days in the hospice , or like sick persons who are there for a short time to recover their health , and , which is even harder , like vagrants to be removed from society, insisting instead that  the blind are fathers with families or may become so ; they are welcomed at any age at the quinze - vingts and enjoy all the freedoms of the other citizens.56 in this statement , members demanded , not only their right to unqualified support as 
unfortunates of the state , but the freedom to express themselves as members of a newly established democratic society .
national assembly explaining that it was  the only authority in which these unfortunates can place their confidence and their hope.57 ironically , they also signed off the petition with a reference to their original foundation of royal privilege :  you will not suffer , citoyen consul , that the history book , already open to record your virtues and your good deeds  contains these words   in the year ix of the republic , the hospice des quinze - vingts founded by a king , protected by all , enriched by good house - keeping and by its legacy.58 in their demands , the post - revolutionary blind referred to all past political regimes , however diverse , who had supported their right to a voice .
the quinze - vingts voice was perceived once again by state authorities as threatening immediately after it was celebrated as exemplary .
after the restoration of the institution in 1793 , the authorities aimed to shut down the literal musical voice of the institution and its associated figurative voice .
the independent ethos of the institution continued to be perceived as a persistent source of the problem .
quinze - vingts members were forced to put up with administrators appointed externally.59 the authorities also implemented hygienic reform to drown out the institution s spirited vocalising of blind affliction .
this would not only improve the literal voices of the blind , but also reform the problematic figurative voice of the institution .
violent voices would be transformed into beautiful ones which would make the public healthy when they heard them . after the institution s re - establishment , any constructive dialogue between the institution and political authorities collapsed .
political documents either do not acknowledge the quinze - vingts  voice ( the politicians are simply not listening ) or attend to it by attempting to silence it .
quinze - vingts members protested against this treatment and continued to vocalise their presence in the urban environment through music .
the tense situation was summed up by the agent general [ agent gnral ] when he reported to the minister of the interior in 1801 :  the blind should be visited and be involved with so that you can get to know them better ; they are capable of anything ; they are allowed to do all things and they think that their infirmity protects them from everything.60 the blind are defined as threatening through their ability to express an unlawful voice . only by experiencing this voice first hand , the agent general warned , will the authorities know just how dangerous it could be .
the authorities saw the merger between quinze - vingts and the institute for blind youth as an ideal opportunity to reform the voice of the entire institution .
it would no longer be a place of bodily deviance , they argued , but of utility and cure . to articulate the blind voice
begging was outlawed in the immediate post - revolutionary period for the reason that the institution was hiding money unlawfully . yet
laws against begging remained enforced on the basis that they were associated with violence . in 1795 ,
the minister of the interior wrote to the director that a group of blind from the institution had been seen  in the countryside to beg alongside ill - intentioned people and this is disturbing the public peace.61 the blind were not to wander from the house on their own without permission , he explained , and must be subject to  the repressive laws on begging to prevent such a situation occurring again .
musical instrument playing was officially permitted but a blind musician could easily be accused of begging rather than performing and then prohibited . laws against begging
were incorporated into the rules and regulations of the institution during the consulat and the empire . the implementation of a set of policing regulations in 1800 by the then minister of the interior , lucien bonaparte , combined both a ban on begging and the official appointment of a director or agent general , not only to oversee the finances but also to supervise the movements of members .
the blind - afflicted body now required containment both inside and outside the institution . like members of the post - revolutionary national assembly , bonaparte considered the institution like a body out of balance .
it was in a state of  the greatest disorder which would be completely transformed through the creation of  a good system of administration and the establishment of  a gentle and humane regime but fairly strong in order to maintain order , subordination and manners.62 the regulations centred on issues of hygiene and mess .
if members threw rubbish into the corridors or left excrement on the toilet floor they would be fined ; if they kept pigeons or rabbits , the animal would be confiscated and the inhabitant fined ; dog mess would incur a fine .
other rules addressed the supposedly unruly behaviour of the children of members , who traditionally lived in the compound with their parents . if they were not taken to school , or played violently , threw stones or fireworks , the parent would lose their journal subscription .
members were also forbidden to have visitors to stay overnight or for a meal without permission .
such regulations were attempts to impose practices of health on an institution that was essentially considered unwell . in 1801 , the then minister of the interior , chaptal , attempted to integrate hay s institution entitled , the national institute for blind workers [ institut national des aveugles - travailleurs ]  originally the institution of blind youth [ institut des jeunes aveugles ] with quinze - vingts .
chaptal saw the institution as a workhouse.63 this was totally contrary to hay s vision of the intellectual blind self , who read , wrote and learned music .
more than half of the blind youth s day was thus spent in the wool spinnery , with the exception of a few students admitted to the music class or the print works.64 hay was unhappy with the emphasis on manual labour .
it is possible to argue , however , that hay s agenda was not so far from chaptal s as might at first be thought .
hay was , of course , attempting reform in a much more sensitive and progressive way .
he took account of the intellectual abilities of the blind rather than relegating them to the workhouse .
 our institution will offer help to all , either for study , or for the practice of their art,65 he explained in his 1784 manifesto .
hay developed a system of imprinting musical characters , along with letters of the alphabet , so that the blind could read and memorise music held in the  bibliothque de got.66 hay admired the learning of the 
old masters such as bach , as well as french composers , couperin and balbastre.67 hay s programme of reform belonged to a much broader culture of musical education designed to cultivate the blind person .
the musical education of the young blind during the post - revolutionary period was profoundly influenced by the composer and music theorist jean - philippe rameau .
rameau reduced some of the more complex acoustical theories of cartesian mathematics into a single palatable system for pedagogical use.68 the simplicity and geometry of rameau s system made it perfect for teaching , and it formed the basis of harmony and composition programmes of post - revolutionary institutions , the paris conservatoire and the young blind at the institute for blind youth and quinze - vingts.69 students could memorise the progressions , absorb them and practise them over a year or more when they entered the institution .
only after this process of intensive learning and practice could they produce performances on their instrument of choice and compositions of real  taste. after memorisation , progressions could be skilfully reversed to create a perfect arch form , and in turn , the invention of a complete piece of music .
rameau s system catered especially for blind pupils , a point he makes plain in the full title of his 1761 teaching manual , code de musique pratique , ou mthodes pour apprendre la musique , mme  des aveugles  [ practical music code , or methods for teaching music , even to the blind  ] .
blind students could shape their fingers and tune their ears producing the best results , precisely because they could not see .
the system can best be described as a kind of physical intuition based on strict harmonic practice . as rameau explained : 
 using this system , the fingers acquire a knowledge which  nourishes the ear of all the harmonic routes , while it presents the mind with a reliable example of all the rules in which it must be educated , with the result that judgment , the ear and the fingers of intelligence work together to quickly produce the perfection that is desirable in this genre 
street criers and popular instrumentalists left listeners cold , rameau explained , because their music was based on an overly primitive theory of harmonics.71 street melodies were unsupported by an appropriate harmonic system . using this system , the fingers acquire a knowledge which  nourishes the ear of all the harmonic routes , while it presents the mind with a reliable example of all the rules in which it must be educated , with the result that judgment , the ear and the fingers of intelligence work together to quickly produce the perfection that is desirable in this genre
 .70 to educate musicians using such a system was to remedy the problem of the raucous blind voice .
it would create a blind self who was harmonised through a systemised set of sonic and gestural signs .
hay believed that young blind musicians , trained in his institution , would lead the way .
but he would also have hoped that the musical programme would have influenced all at quinze - vingts after the amalgamation .
he wanted to create a completely new voice for the institution that was in keeping with civilised musical programmes of the late eighteenth - century bourgeoisie .
but it could not be easily implemented alongside the blind voice at quinze - vingts . in 1816 ,
the blind youth institute departed quinze - vingts to form a separate institution once again .
hay s musical programme was developed by the new director of the institute for blind youth 
now the royal institute for blind youth [ institution royale des jeunes aveugles ]  and continued to influence generations of young blind musicians.72 quinze - vingts musicians , however , continued to perform on the streets of paris .
yet they were met with further voices of political opposition that were to increase in volume as the century progressed . during the restoration ,
, they wrote to the grand almoner [ grand aumnier ] , gustave - maximilien - juste , prince de cro , their current superior general [ suprieur gnral ] , for an official restitution of the jurors.73 the jurors had continued to meet throughout the empire and restoration , though externally appointed administrators had often intervened in the running of the institution .
unhappy with the administrators appointed by the prince , they demanded the official restitution of the juror system in order to safeguard against what they perceived as unlawful external interference .
it would be much more economically expedient , the blind explained , to hand all moneys directly to the newly restored jurors ,  the observing and protective voice,74 who would then distribute the moneys appropriately . from the 1830s ,
kudlick and weygand have noted that during the restoration , the catholic ultra - royalists who ran the quinze - vingts looked  particularly unfavourably upon their student musicians or singers who performed in such immoral places [ as the caf of the blind ] at all hours.75 in the 1820s , the almoner prohibited them from going to the caf , a venue they had continued to use for musical performance after the revolution.76 by the 1830s , the authorities realised that if the blind insisted on performing at the caf , boundaries had to be established by those in political control . in 1831 , they reluctantly granted permission for a band to visit the caf on the condition that it conformed to a strict curfew . 
most of the blind being able to devote themselves only to the art of music , the administrator will decide the extent to which they must be permitted to carry out this activity,77 they declared . the restriction of blind voices during the 1820s and 30s coincides with an intense period of panic amongst the parisian bourgeoisie concerning disease such as cholera .
kudlick has explained that this heightened anxiety came from a new shift in perception that : 
 paris suffered from a kind of internal imbalance rather than from externally imposed conditions of geography and climate ; the city was plagued by forces of its own making .
implicit in this view was a moral judgement : not only was the capital becoming sick , but the sickness was part of the very fabric of urban existence and resulted from human activity rather than mysterious natural forces.78 
 by focusing on the individual behaviour of the  poor and the environment that surrounded them , the bourgeoisie were reassured that they might not catch the disease .
now , all the sites outside the institution frequented by the quinze - vingts musicians were under threat .
paris suffered from a kind of internal imbalance rather than from externally imposed conditions of geography and climate ; the city was plagued by forces of its own making .
implicit in this view was a moral judgement : not only was the capital becoming sick , but the sickness was part of the very fabric of urban existence and resulted from human activity rather than mysterious natural forces.78 though musicians continued to perform on the streets , their movements were heavily scrutinised .
the authorities forced members , in particular the musicians , to wear a military - style uniform when out and about.79 such a uniform performed a completely different function from the fleur - de - lis robe offered to members by louis ix at the institution s foundation .
post - revolutionary uniforms were designed to muffle or mute it with an instrument of authority .
this was followed by much tighter forms of restrictions on public movements enforced by the prfecture de police.80 in 1842 , a list of quinze - vingts 
beggars was drawn up under the title :  the blind who engage in any activity on the public highway in paris either by playing various instruments , or singing , fortune - telling , or peddling objects with no value as a way of disguising their begging.81 alongside a list of the licenced 
of the twenty - three individuals , eleven were instrumental musicians ( seven clarinettists and four violinists ) , with the remaining ( including an additional set of two small groups ) selling matches or asking for alms near churches . alongside the implementation of this system
was a set of laws designed to ban the movements of quinze - vingts musicians outright.82 travelling beyond paris was now out of the question following the implementation of a revised and convoluted new application procedure .
begging on the streets of paris ( either individually or in groups , though the latter was a more serious offence ) could also be permanently thrown out of the hospice , or have their pension dramatically reduced if they did not have the appropriate permission .
attempts to silence the blind voice became much worse during the period of the july revolution .
the classification of quinze - vingts members as violent , poor and diseased was suddenly extended to include revolutionary.83 in 1847 , a group of hospice inhabitants was expelled from the institution , presumably for begging on the street.84 they found their way to the house of victor hugo who arranged alternative accommodation for them in a provincial parish .
he complained vehemently to the quinze - vingts chaplain , jean prompsault , who had managed to save the quinze - vingts chapel from closure by the church authorities during the 1830s .
prompsault responded :  the blind for whom you are concerned have been treated with a severity which , in my opinion , would be difficult to justify .
i can state without fear of contradiction , that they are the best educated and the most peaceful men in the establishment.85 prompsault and hugo were amongst the few public figures during the mid - century period to recognise the blind voice .
as prompsault explained : 
 i have just received a letter from him [ the minister of the interior ] which states that this measure was intended to restore order , discipline and subordination , that it was successful in its aim , that the government of the republic does not need to be persuaded to take an interest in the blind , and that i must not intervene in an act of internal administration.86 
 meanwhile , the director proposed an ambitious and expensive renovation plan for the quinze - vingts site.87 though the plan was never executed , major work began on the bastille railway station next to the site in 1856 .
a brand new ocular clinic was built in 1870 , and the site quickly transformed into an institution primarily designed for surgical practice.88 the blind were temporarily removed from the site altogether in 1885 .
i have just received a letter from him [ the minister of the interior ] which states that this measure was intended to restore order , discipline and subordination , that it was successful in its aim , that the government of the republic does not need to be persuaded to take an interest in the blind , and that i must not intervene in an act of internal administration.86 the mid - nineteenth - century period of quinze - vingts history was dominated by aggressive modification of the institution s architecture , resulting in complete transformation .
the independence of the figurative blind voice was silenced through the remodelling of its mouthpiece ( the institution ) by authorities and knowledgeable experts into something quite new and different .
surgeons were eager to apply new methods in ocular surgery during this period to quinze - vingts patients and others throughout the world .
their laudable aims also coincided with an assault on the blind voice . just prior to the installation of the surgical clinic at quinze - vingts ,
the quinze - vingts blind were the subject of a vicious verbal attack by lonce guyot - montpayroux , an active enemy of the empire and soon - to - be member of gambetta s government of the third republic . without mentioning them by name ,
he decried a group of citizens ,  les peureux et les aveugles [  the fearful and the blind ] dominating the tenth arrondissement of paris.89 these citizens , he explained , were extremists , either reactionaries or revolutionaries , who refused to change or be cured through their weakness or stubbornness of character .
they could be identified through the terrible sounds they created as they wandered around the countryside in groups of musical bands . 
get close and listen to them while observing how each person likes to attract particular attention : the trombone will raise the pitch , the unfortunate clarinet will do its best not to be drowned out by the noise , and in a short time it will be a cacophony which will make you wish you were deaf.90 behind the attack was a political message in france , the interior administration is thus ; when it thinks that an eye is being kept on it , it acts in the same way as the clarinet that i have spoken about91 but the characterisation of the blind voice as threatening was all too familiar .
the blind voice was a serious social problem and should be silenced . aside from efforts to maintain the voice of the institution , the blind actively protested against legislation designed to curb their voices .
they discarded the uniform designed to muffle their voices on the street , complaining so vehemently about the restriction that the director recommended the rule be dropped.92 when work began on the bastille railway station they complained that the noise from the outside streets was unbearable.93 their voices , by implication , would be drowned out .
a group of musicians from the institution was granted permission to perform on the streets of paris at the same time.94 unwanted noise would , once again , be met with blind voices . amongst these was franois leclerc , who requested permission to perform his clarinet  on the bridges of the capital.95 by articulating their voices , quinze - vingts members presented the authorities with a formidable challenge .
their vocalic mode of utterance gave them a particularly powerful presence in the urban landscape .
they presented themselves in the highly public domain of the urban parisian street promoting a bodily image and vocal language that resisted any form of intervention by experts .
lithographs printed during the period demonstrate that quinze - vingts musicians continued to be a lively presence in the urban environment despite regulations designed to suppress their activities at the time ( see figure 2).96figure 2gottfried engelmann , 
quinze - vingts members managed to maintain the right to sound the blind voice in the post - revolutionary period , but they were met with a series of authoritarian voices designed to silence them .
the most sympathetic of these was produced by valentin hay , who desired reform amongst the blind through attention to social and intellectual improvement .
quinze - vingts members protested against laws designed to silence them by continuing to sound their voices .
they ignored curfews and continued to insist that protection of the quinze - vingts voice should be upheld .
it is crucial that we acknowledge the blind voice of the post - revolutionary period .
utterance gave blind musicians a sense of vocal power that was attached to a highly embedded , culturally defined status .
they took care to continue to sound the blind self because it mattered to them .
such vocal contributions , however , were much more than simply random acts of self - interest on behalf of a small minority group .
self that so many french thinkers and writers had dreamed of in the period prior to the revolution .
patient had the right to speak up and engage in a dialogue with their political and medical carers .
political authorities also used voices to assert authority . their unwillingness to listen to the blind voice
patient required the blind voice because its parameters of care were , in many ways , far too prescriptively confined . to acknowledge the sounding citizen 
the citizen  patient at the hospice des quinze - vingts had a clear and startling voice .
 this essay explores new models of the citizen  patient by attending to the post - revolutionary blind  voice. voice , in both a literal and figurative sense , was central to the way in which members of the hospice des quinze - vingts , an institution for the blind and partially sighted , interacted with those in the community . 
 musical voices had been used by members to collect alms and to project the particular spiritual principle of their institution since its foundation in the thirteenth century . at the time of the revolution , 
 the quinze - vingts voice was understood by some political authorities as an exemplary call of humanity . 
 yet many others perceived it as deeply threatening . 
 after 1800 , productive dialogue between those in political control and quinze - vingts blind members broke down . 
 authorities attempted to silence the voice of members through the control of blind musicians and institutional management . 
 the quinze - vingts blind continued to reassert their voices until around 1850 , providing a powerful form of resistance to political control . the blind  
 voice ultimately recognised the right of the citizen  
 patient to dialogue with their political carers . 
Hearing and Understanding the Blind Voice
Human Rights: Resisting Voices
Silencing the Quinze-Vingts Voice