| Date |
Person |
Background History |
Where |
Image |
The Statement |
| 1268 |
Friar Roger Bacon |
Roger Bacon (1210-1294) was an
Oxford lecturer and later a Franciscan monk who was preoccupied with the
idea of experimental studies. As a forerunner of the modern scientist, he
experimented with lenses and mirrors and described reflection and
refraction. He suggested lenses could be used as magnifiers for close work
and also single lenses could be used for viewing distant objects. His "Opus
Majus" deals in seven parts with (1) the obstacles to real wisdom and truth,
(2) the relation between theology and philosophy, (3) the necessity of
studying zealously the Biblical languages (4) mathematics and their relation
and application to the sacred sciences (5) optics or perspective; (6) the
experimental sciences; and (7) moral philosophy or ethics. Bacon was
imprisoned in a cell from 1278-1290 when results of his optical studies were
condemned and he was charged with 'suspected novelties' (“black magic”) in
his teaching. Evidently his writings were then hidden until 1733. |
In his Opus Majus |
| "If anyone examine letters or
other minute objects through the medium of crystal or glass or other
transparent substance, if it be shaped like the lesser segment of a sphere,
with the convex side toward the eye, he will see the letters far better and
they will seem larger to him. For this reason such an instrument is useful
to old persons and to those with weak eyes for they can see any letter,
however small, if magnified enough." |
| 1303 |
Bernard de Gordon of Montpelier
|
This
physician who lived between the 13th and 14th century praised an eye
solution (collyrium) in a medical book. He started teaching medicine in
Montpellier in 1285. A list of his writings is to be found in Astruc
Memoires pour servir à l´Histoire de la Faculté de Montpellier. |
In a medical book |
 |
“ It is so
effective that it allows an old patient to see even small letters without
glasses.” |
| Feb. 23,
1306 |
Fra Giordano
da Rivalto |
Given at the
church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, this was the first ever mention
of the term for eyeglasses. |
In a sermon |
 |
“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. So short a time is it since there was invented a new art
that never existed. I have seen the man who first invented and created it
and I have talked to him” |
| 1313 |
Fra
Allesandro della Spina |
According to
Prof Arnold Sorsby, "Fra Giordino had a colleague in the monastery of St.
Catherina at Pisa, Fra Alessandro da Spina, and that Francesco Redi, Italian
Prof of Medicine, found the obituary notice in the manuscript chronicle of
the monastery" |
In his death notice |
 |
“…..a monk of
most excellent character and acute mind………Whatever has been made, when he
Spina 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.” |
| 1317 |
Salvino
Armato degli Armati |
Claims
related to Salvino Armato of Florence are largely based on the excessive
zeal of a Florentine historian, Domenico Manni.
Manni related that a Florentine antiquary had seen a tomb-stone inscription
in the now demolished church of St. Maria Maggiore at Florence. Manni
believed that Armato was the secretive inventor spoken of in the references
to Allesandro della Spina. |
On his headstone |
 |
“Here lies
Salvino D’Armato Degli Armati of Florence, the inventor of eyeglasses.
May God forgive his sin. Anno Domini 1317"
(unfortunately
this has been proven to be false. He did not invent
spectacles. It is now generally accepted that the claim, probably to
boost the prestige of the Armati family from Florence, was made hundreds of years after he
died, if he ever even existed, and the plaque has been removed from the
outside wall and hidden away low down in a corner of one of the side
chapels.)
|
| circa 1360’s |
Francesco
Petrarca |
Francesco
Petrarca (1304 – 1374) was the great Italian poet, classical scholar, and
Humanist. His Latin poetry and scholarship made him famous, and in 1341 he
was crowned as poet laureate in Rome.
In this quotation it is unlikely
that he was referring to a magnifier, the only other type of corrective lens
available at that time.
|
From his
"Letter to Posterity" (trans. and ed. by Mark Musa in The_Italian_Renaissance_Reader) |
 |
"I had ...
for many years sharp vision, which, however, unexpectedly deserted
me when I passed my sixtieth birthday, and forced me, reluctantly,
to resort to the use of glasses." |
| 1363 |
Guy de
Chauliac |
Guy de Chauliac (1300?-1368) was
one of the most eminent
French surgeons of the European Middle Ages. In Chirurgia
Magna he helped establish surgery as a serious science by describing many
surgical procedures, including that for cataract. His book remained the
standard surgical text for 300 years. He became physician to Popes
Clement VI, Innocent VI and Urban V. |
in his
Chirurgia magna |
 |
“When the eye solutions do not help, we have to turn to
spectacles of glass or beryl.” |
| 1415 |
Thomas
Hoccleve |
Hoccleve (1369?-1450) is an
English poet acknowledged as an enthusiastic admirer of Chaucer. It is most
probable that Hoccleve knew Chaucer personally. He was a true Chaucerian as
far as love and admiration could make him, but he was unable to imitate
worthily his master's skill in poetry. |
in L.D.Bronson’s book Early
American Specs |
 |
“Right as a spectacle helpeth feeble sighte.
When a man on
the book redith or writ.” |
| 1462 |
Duke
Francesco Sforza of Milan |
Founder of the Sforza
dynasty in Milan, Italy Francesco Sforza (1401-1466) was originally a
mercenary leader, most famous for being able to bend metal bars with his
bare hands. He later proved himself to be an expert tactician and very
skilled field commander. The then duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti ,
allowed Francesco to marry his daughter Bianca, but after the duke died
without a male heir, fighting broke out. During this time, Franscesco turned
against the Visconti, and seized control of Milan and its possessions.
Under his skillful rule, the city of Milan was modernized. He created an
efficient tax system that generated enormous revenues for the government,
his court became a center of Renaissance learning and culture, and the
people of Milan loved him. |
In
his letter to his resident ambassador in Florence |
 |
“Because
there are many who request of us eyeglasses that are made there in
Florence……….We inform you that we do not want them for our use because,
thank God, we do not need them, but we want them in order to please this
one or that one who asks us for them.” |
| 1553 |
Christobal
Mendez, Spanish medical physician |
as described
by Agustin Gonzalez-Cano in his article published in January 2004, Atti
Della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi. |
In his
1553 “Book
of Bodily Exercises" |
 |
“For this reason I find not good that some people use
continuously their eyeglasses, being short-sighted, because in this way,
the eyes are covered and do not exercise and they have more superfluities,
and that harms them very much” |
| 1583 |
George
Bartisch |
George Bartisch (1535‑1606) was a
German who was apprenticed to a barber surgeon as a 13‑year‑old boy. He took
a particular interest in diseases of the eye and over the years made
himself into a specialist. In his 40s Bartisch put his special knowledge
into this book, apparently doing the illustrations himself. His book was
widely read by physicians and students, and its very existence suggested
that it might be possible to make a career out of "the service of the
eyes." In 1588, at the age of 53, Bartisch was appointed court oculist
to the Elector of Saxony, an important position for someone who had started
out as an unlettered barber surgeon. |
In
his 1583 "Ophthalmodoulea" the first comprehensive text on eye diseases
Link to the BOA Library Website |
 |
“Man has
two eyes – he needs not four”
In fact one
chapter in the Bartisch book Ophthalmodoulea is dedicated to the topic
“How one
should avoid spectacles and eyeglasses and should abstain from wearing them”
|
