Editing Glasses (section)

=== Precursors ===
{{See|Reading stone}}

Scattered evidence exists for use of visual aid devices in Greek and Roman times, most prominently the use of an emerald by [[Nero|Emperor Nero]] as mentioned by [[Pliny the Elder]].<ref>Pliny the Elder. ''The Natural History'', Book 37, Chpt.16. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, translators. London: Taylor and Francis. 1855</ref>

The use of a [[Lens (optics)|convex lens]] to form an enlarged/magnified image was most likely described in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Optics (Ptolemy)|Optics]]'' (which survives only in a poor Arabic translation). Ptolemy's description of lenses was commented upon and improved by [[Ibn Sahl (mathematician)|Ibn Sahl]] (10th century) and most notably by [[Ibn al-Haytham|Alhazen]] (''[[Book of Optics]]'', {{circa|1021}}). [[Latin translations of the 12th century|Latin translations]] of Ptolemy's ''Optics'' and of Alhazen became available in Europe in the 12th century, coinciding with the development of "[[reading stone]]s".

There are claims that single lens magnifying glasses were being used in China during the [[Northern Song dynasty]] (960–1127).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/1909061557/ | title=Opening our eyes to spectacles of the past }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/3jdyv_402zp.html | title=In the tomb of Liu Jing, the King of Guangling, a gold circle embedded with crystals was unearthed, which was the first glasses in history | date=7 April 2022 }}</ref>

[[Robert Grosseteste]]'s treatise ''De iride'' (''On the Rainbow''), written between 1220 and 1235, mentions using optics to "read the smallest letters at incredible distances".<ref>{{Citation |title=A Source Book in Medieval Science |date=1974 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fAPN_3w4hAUC&pg=PA389 |page=389 |editor-last=Grant |editor-first=Edward |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674823600}} From Grant's English translation of Robert Grosseteste's ''De Iride'' (On the rainbow) in Latin, p. 389: "This part [viz, from Aristotle's supposed treatise on optics] of perspective, if perfectly understood, shows us how to make nearby objects appear very small, and how to make a small object placed at a distance appear as large as we wish, so that it would be possible to read minute letters from incredible distances or count sand, seeds, blades of grass, or any minute objects."</ref> A few years later in 1262, [[Roger Bacon]] is also known to have written on the magnifying properties of lenses.<ref>Bacon, Roger; Burke, Robert Belle, trans. (1962) [https://archive.org/details/opusmajusofroger002065mbp/page/n181 ''The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon''] (New York: Russell & Russell, Inc.) vol. 2. Part 5, Ch. IV, p. 582. From p. 582: "For we can so shape transparent bodies, and arrange them in such a way with respect to our sight and objects of vision, that the rays will be refracted and bent in any direction we desire, and under any angle, we wish we shall see the object near or at a distance. Thus from an incredible distance we might read the smallest letters and number grains of dust and sand ..."</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=...Optics Highlights: II. Spectacles |url=http://www.ece.umd.edu/~taylor/optics2.htm |publisher=University of Maryland, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering |access-date=1 September 2007 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923233305/http://www.ece.umd.edu/~taylor/optics2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The development of the first eyeglasses took place in northern [[Italy]] in the second half of the 13th century.<ref name="Kriss">{{Citation |last1=Kriss |first1=Timothy C |title=History of the Operating Microscope: From Magnifying Glass to Microneurosurgery |date=April 1998 |journal=Neurosurgery |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=899–907 |doi=10.1097/00006123-199804000-00116 |pmid=9574655 |last2=Kriss |first2=Vesna Martich}}</ref>

Independently of the development of optical lenses, some cultures developed "[[sunglasses]]" for eye protection, without any corrective properties.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ament |first=Phil |title=Sunglasses History – The Invention of Sunglasses |date=4 December 2006 |url=http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/sunglasses.htm |work=The Great Idea Finder |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703224202/http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/sunglasses.htm |publisher=Vaunt Design Group |access-date=28 June 2007 |archive-date=3 July 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> For example, flat panes of [[smoky quartz]] were used in 12th-century [[China]],{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Chinese judges wore dark glasses to hide their facial expressions during court proceedings.{{Sfn|Needham|1962|p=121}}}} and the [[Inuit]] have used [[Inuit snow goggles|snow goggles]] for eye protection.

<gallery widths="150" heights="200">
File:Tommaso da modena, ritratti di domenicani (Ugo di Provenza) 1352 150cm, treviso, ex convento di san niccolò, sala del capitolo.jpg|Detail of a portrait of the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] cardinal and renowned biblical scholar [[Hugh of Saint-Cher]], painted by [[Tommaso da Modena]] in 1352
File:Portrait of a Cardinal by El Greco.jpg|Portrait of Cardinal [[Fernando Niño de Guevara]] by [[El Greco]], c. 1600, showing glasses with temples passing over and around the ears
File:Mu'in. Portrait of Riza-i-Abbasi. 1673. Princeton University..jpg|The Persian miniaturist [[Reza Abbasi]] wearing glasses, 1673.
</gallery>