The History of Glasses

Are you curious about the history of glasses? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we provide an overview of the fascinating history of eyeglasses. For what today is quite normal, even natural almost, has a history of more than 700 years.

In ancient times, when eyesight began to fail and the eyes became weaker, you would simply have to come to terms with this and try to live your life. The famous Roman orator Cicero complained about what a burden it was to have texts read to him by his slaves. Even the notorious Emperor Nero used emeralds to better follow the gladiator fights in the Colosseum and chariot races in the Circus Maximus.

Nor were ancient advanced civilisations such as the Maya, the Egyptians or the Chinese able to find a solution to this problem at the zenith of their creativity. The Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) with the invention of the burning lens, which concentrates the light from the sun into a small area, provided a new impetus for ideas. According to legend, he set fire to a large part of the Roman fleet during the three-year siege of Syracuse.

Gaius Plinius (23-79 A.D.) on the other hand recorded in one of his innumerable writings the magnifying effect of a water-filled glass ball, but did not pursue, practically apply or use this knowledge further. The first step in the right direction was made by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy (around 150 A.D.) with the establishment of the laws of light refraction. Nevertheless, it took more than another 1000 years until the Arab mathematician and astronomer Alhazen, also known as Ibn al-Haitam (965–c. 1040 AD), included them in his book “Book of Optics” and used them as a basis for the laws of refraction, which are decisive for good vision.

In the work, which also reports on the teaching of vision and reflection, he was the first to suggest that the eye should be supported by a polished optical lens, before Snellius (1581-1626) established the law of refraction some 500 years later and published it in his five-volume work on optics.

Italian monks achieved the first groundbreaking success in the history of glasses in the 13th century. They produced the first semi-cut lens, which, in practical use, served mainly as a magnifying glass. For this, they used the rock crystal beryl, before in 1267 the Oxford Franciscan monk Roger Bacon provided academic proof that special cuts of glass made it possible to enlarge small and hardly recognisable letters.

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The origin of glasses as we know them is, quite logically, in Italy. More precisely in the world-famous Venetian glassworks of Murano. However, this is more for logistical and less for scientific reasons. Indeed, in the 13th century, they were the only ones capable of producing the white glass that was essential to the manufacturing process. The success led to the first regulations being established shortly afterwards to ensure quality assurance for the production process.

The first glasses or spectacles had a convex cut glass, which the Italians bordered with iron, horn or wood. This frame mostly formed a simple style to stabilize the first lenses, which were used exclusively to allow long-sighted people to continue to enjoy the written word.

With the spread of the teachings of Snellius, the production of spectacles began to bear a distant resemblance to today’s glasses. Rivet spectacles, so called due to being made of two parts joined in the centre by a rivet, increasingly gave way to iron spectacles. The frames, which were uniformly made of one piece, were particularly popular among the wealthy and richer citizens and nobility, as they had them made of bronze or iron in order to clearly distinguish themselves from the lower classes of the population.

In Spain, large models began early on to dominate public life and could even be seen as a kind of status symbol. For the first time, considerations of wearing comfort were also taken into account, so that a leather nose bridge became quite common. Nevertheless, keeping the spectacle frame on the face, which at that time still had no arms, remained one of the biggest challenges of the time. They only found a solution with the introduction of the so-called Nürnberger Wire Glasses in the 18th century. Until then, the frame either slipped off the nose or pinched so tightly that the wearer did not find this particularly comfortable.

At the end of the 18th century, the single lens spectacles, better known as monocles, enjoyed increasing popularity. High society in Germany and England, in particular, preferred this type of eyewear, whereas the French preferred the “scissor glasses”. Monocles were not worn on the nose itself, but instead held by the muscles around the eye. They had the advantage that they could easily be taken off so as not to show any hint of weakness amongst aristocratic circles in and around Paris.

Our glasses owe their present appearance to further developments in the 1920s, so that the variety of shapes, colours and materials is almost unlimited today. Worldwide, especially in the new millennium, eyewear has evolved from being a necessary evil to being an important fashion accessory. In our assortment of prescription glasses, you will find all types of models produced by the optical industry as well as more detailed information on the history of many famous glasses brands, from Ray-Ban to Dior. So feel free to scroll through today’s eyewear inventions!