History of Eyeglasses

I always thought that glasses were a fairly modern thing but whilst doing some research I found out that they are much older than I imagined.

Who invented the first wearable glasses?

No body is actually sure of the exact time, date and inventor of glasses but typically Salvino D’Armate is credited with inventing the first eye glasses that were worn. This is thought to have been around 1284.

The earliest image actually depicting a pair of glasses was a portaint of the cardinal Hugh de Provence by Tomaso da Modena in 1352.

There are many other rumors and theories. Here are some of them:

In 1676 a professor at the University of Pisa named Francesco Redi wrote saying that he had in his possession a manuscript from 1289 in which author complained that he would not be able to read or write if glasses had not been recently invented.

Francesco Redi also had a sermon record that was given in 1305. A Dominican monk who’s name was Fra Giordano da Rivalto, said that eye glasses had been invented less than twenty years previous. He also claimed t have met the inventor.

Based on this Francesco Redi also credited credited another Dominican monk who was called Fra Alessandro da Spina of Pisa. He said that Alessandro had reinvented eye glasses because the original inventor had kept them a secret. This claim is contained in da Spina’s obituary record.

Othe possibly legendary, or should we say possible fake stories, credit a man called Roger Bacon.
Bacon is recorded to have made one of the first officially recorded references to the magnifying properties of lenses in 1262. However this is much predated in 1201 in Alhazen’s Book of Optics.

All this means that the exact date and inventor will never be known. It is however almost certain that they were invented in Italy between 1280-1300.

As you know Glasses have really come a long way. Now glasses wearers like myself are lucky to have access to countless styles, hard wearing lenses and frames and many other great features.

FUN FACT: Bifocals were invented in 1784 by the famous scientist Benjamin Franklin. He suffered from myopia and presbyopia and invented bifocals so that he did not have to keep switching glasses.

Image and Information Source: Wikipedia