|
Finally, and in more general terms, there are a few noteworthy
mistaken statements that have been passed down for a few generations. These
“wildly imaginative” claims can now be mentioned and then commented upon.
| Title |
Description |
Photo |
Comments |
| “Marco Polo brought spectacles
to the Far East”
|
Numerous publications
|
 |
There has apparently never been
any proof to support this statement. His book Il Milione does not even
mention anything. Instead traders most likely brought vision aids in from
the West, perhaps through the coastal city of Mallaca, known as the Venice
of the East.
|
| “Salvino Armati of Florence was
the secretive inventor of eyeglasses” spoken of in the references to
Allesandro della Spina. |
This was based on the excessive
zeal of Florentine historian Domenico Manni who related that a Florentine
antiquary had seen a tomb-stone inscription in the now demolished church of
St. Maria Maggiore at Florence. |
 |
It is now generally accepted
that this claim, probably to boost the prestige of the Armati family, was
made hundreds of years after Salvino Armati had 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.
Where is primary source evidence of this particular statement that Armati
was performing some sort of light experiments? |
| "The first eyeglasses to aid or
correct vision were almost certainly invented in 1280 in Florence, Italy by
the Dominican friar Alessandro della Spina and / or his friend, the
physicist Salvino degli Armati. Prescribed for far-sightedness, the glasses
had convex lenses and were worn by Armati, who had injured his eyes while
performing light refraction experiments and discovered that it was possible
to enlarge the appearance of objects by looking through two pieces of convex
glass." |
Another website |
 |
No one knows for certain but
all the evidence seems to point to the inventor of eyeglasses as an unknown
artisan from Pisa, Italy circa 1286-87. Professor Edward Rosen’s articles
from 1956 are definitive on this topic. (See References for Study) |
| Francesco Redi, Italian
Professor of Medicine, Scientist, Doctor, and Poet at the court of the
Medici, possessed a Florentine manuscript (book) from 1299 which he quoted
in a 1676 letter. Spectacles are supposedly mentioned in the preface of this
book as something discovered at that time. |
|
 |
Again Professor Edward Rosen,
in his 1956 articles, proves all this to be totally false and just an
invention of Redi. |
| “Did Jesus Christ Really Wear Eyeglasses”
|
Noted on another website:
http://einhornpress.com/eyeglasses.aspx! Nicola Pisano's "Adoration of
the Magi," is a 13th century marble relief in the pulpit of the baptistery
at Pisa, Italy. Apparently it was photographed by Alinari and the image was
then included in the 1937 (7th edition) of Wonders of Italy, The Monuments
of Antiquity, the Churches, the Palaces, the Treasures of Art, a Handbook
for Students and Travellers. Another photo just like it, by Giraudon, also
appears to show the baby Jesus wearing eyeglasses, in the 1964 edition of
the Larousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art. |
 |
Noted authorities all agree
that eyeglasses originated in Italy near end of the 13th century. We believe
that they first were “invented” by an unknown artisan from Pisa about
1286-87 and these were Rivet Spectacles. To now believe that Jesus wore them
almost 1300 years earlier, before he died at the age of 33, and his pair
even had sidearms (thought to have originated related to the work of Edward
Scarlett, in England about 1728-1730), is simply preposterous. All of this is
nonsense and buffoonery. |
|
