There is no definite evidence that vision-correcting spectacles existed in the ancient world. There are reports of Chinese using tinted eyeglasses approximately 2000 years ago, but they were supposedly intended for protection against bright light, rather than for refraction (1). Aristophanes described burning glasses used for starting fires as early as 424 BC (2). In all probability, the lenses of antiquity were of too poor optical quality to produce a useful image. By the first century BC, Ancient Greeks used a glass ball filled with water as a magnifying device (1). During the first century AD, the Roman emperor Nero is said to have held an emerald over one eye while watching gladiatorial contests, but it is not certain that this was done for refractive purposes (3). By the 11th century AD, “reading stones” made of glass were placed directly on reading material for use as magnifiers (1,4).
The first spectacles with convex lenses were most likely manufactured in Pisa circa 1286 (5,6). These comprised two lenses, connected with wood or horn, and held by hand or perched on the bridge of the nose (1). The oldest known illustration of spectacles is that of Cardinal Hugh (or Hugo) of Saint-Cher (Figure 1). Cardinal Hugh died in 1263, before the invention of the spectacles, so their use in this illustration is anachronistic.
The name of the Pisan inventor is unknown. Some authors have proposed Salvino d’Armato (or d’Armati), a Florentine, based on an epitaph in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence, dated 1317, which reads “… the inventor of spectacles. May God pardon him his sins” (4). Salvino was so well known that he was mentioned in Umberto Eco’s 1980 bestseller The Name of the Rose, which takes place in an Italian monastery in 1327. The protagonist, William of Baskerville, owns reading glasses and says, “I was given a pair of them by a great master, Salvinus of the Armati, more than ten years ago" (7). Unfortunately, modern historians consider this claim to be “fake news” (8). The church has undergone many renovations since the 14th century; the current epitaph dates to 1841 and contains the word “Inventor,” which was not used in 14th century Italian (8).
The estimate of the year of invention comes from a sermon delivered by Friar Giordano da Rivalto, a monk from the St. Catherine’s Monastery in Pisa, at the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence in 1305. Friar Giordano said, “It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses which make for good vision, one of the best arts and most necessary that the world has” (9). He used the Italian word “occhiali” (Figure 2) (5,6). Evidence supporting this claim comes a description of Friar Alessandro Spina (or della Spina), a contemporary of Friar Giordano in the St. Catherine’s Monastery: “Whatever had been made, when he saw it with his own eyes, he too knew how to make it; and when … somebody else was the first to invent eyeglasses and was unwilling to communicate the invention to others, all by himself he made them and good naturedly shared them with everybody" (9).
The first documentation of spectacles in the New World appears to be two portraits of Luis de Velasco El Joven (the son), Viceroy of New Spain, about 1590 (10). Modern spectacles, with two lenses, connected by a frame with a bridge that sits on the nose, and temple pieces that sit over the ears, most likely developed in England during the 18th and 19th centuries (1).
References
- ML Rubin ML, "Spectacles: past, present, and future," Surv Ophthalmol, 30, 321 (1986). PMID: 3520911.
- CE Letocha, "The History of Aphakic Spectacles and Contact Lenses," in CT Leffler (ed), A New History of Cataract Surgery, Part 1: From Antiquity Through 1750, 257, Amsterdam: Wayenborgh: 2024.
- F Roman, "The invention of spectacles," Br J Ophthalmol, 77, 568 (1993). PMID: 8218053.
- GT Cashell, "A short history of spectacles," Proc R Soc Med, 64, 1063 (1971). PMID: 4947529.
- E Rosen, "The invention of eyeglasses," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 11, 13 (1956). PMID: 13295576.
- V Ilardi, "Renaissance Florence: the optical capital of the world," Journal of European Economic History, 3, 507 (1993).
- U Eco (translator W Weaver), The Name of the Rose, 86, Harcourt: 1983. E Baldazani, A Farini, "Florence and the history of glasses: between fake news and technological progress," Il Colle di Galileo, 13, 29 (2024).
- CE Letocha, "The origin of spectacles," Surv Ophthalmol, 31, 185 (1986). PMID: 3544295.
- M Calvo, JM Enoch, "Early use of corrective lenses in Spanish colonies of the Americas including parts of the future United States: reference to Viceroy Luis de Velasco (the Son)," Optom Vis Sci, 80, 681 (2003). PMID: 14560118.
