Wednesday

The Eyes Have It

There was no such thing as a optometrist in early Europe. Spectacles were invented late in the thirteenth century. But the study of optics and lenses as a formal field, did not happen until after the 17th century.

Glasses did not have side pieces to clip around the nose as they do now. Instead, spectacles balanced--teetered really--on the nose.

Interestingly, it's hard to find references to the use of lenses to correct near- or farsightedness until about 1604. And this is only in passing, a brief mention by Kepler. So I'd be curious to know more about just how effective vision correction was between the thirteen and eighteenth centuries. When I find out something, I'll let you know!

For more on glassmaking, glasses, and telescopes in the seventeenth century, see Albert Van Helden, "The Telescope in the Seventeenth Century." Isis, 1974: 38-58.

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Image: 16th Century Spectacle Maker's Catalogue, German

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4 comments:

  1. As a retired Optometrist, I enjoyed your post! Keep 'em coming!

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  2. There are just so many fascinating aspects of history we still don't know enough about. Research for everyone!

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  3. As someone who was practically born with glasses, I loved the story!

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  4. I just started reading "Renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes" by V. Ilardi (2007) so this post was right on point. You might enjoy Appendix 3, Spectacles in art; and the bibliography is huge - lots more reading to come!

    ReplyDelete

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