Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1890 — When Spectacles Were Invented [ARTICLE]

When Spectacles Were Invented

Few inventions have conferred \ greater blessing on the human race than that which assists impaired vision. Dr. Johnson rightly expressed his surprise that such a ‘•'enefactor as the discoverer of speetacles sh uld have been regarded with indifferenoe,and found no worthy biographer to celebrate his ingenuity. Unfortunately, his name is a matter of much uncer tainty, and hence a grateful posterity have been prevented from bestowing upon his memory that honor which it has so richly mer*. ited. But it ma/be noted that popular opinion has long agD pronounced in favor of a Florentine monk as the rightful claimant, although some are in favor of Roger Bacon. M. Spoon, in his “Researches Curieueses d’Antiquite,” fixes the date of the invention or discovery of spectacles between the years 1280 and 1311, and says that Alex* andre de Spina, having seen a pair made by some other person who was unwilling to communicate the secret of iheir construction, ordered a pair, discovered the secret, and forthwith made it public.— Italian anl'quarians say that the pereon to whom Spina was indebted for his information was Salvino, who died in 1318, and quotes from an ancient manuscript his epitaph, which says: “Here lies Salvino Arnota de Armati of Florence, the inventor of spectaeles. May God pardon his sins.”

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