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The first eyeglasses were made in Italy in about 1286, but it is not clear who the inventor was. In a

sermon delivered on February 23, 136, the !ominican friar "iordano da #isa$ca. 12%%&1311'

wrote (It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of ma)ing eyeglasses, which ma)e for

good vision... *nd it is so short a time that this new art, never before e+tant, was discovered. ... I saw

the one who first discovered and racticed it, and I tal)ed to him.( -%"iordano/s colleague

Friar*lessandro della 0inaof #isa $d. 1313' was soon ma)ing eyeglasses. TheAncient Chronicle

of the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine in Pisarecords (yeglasses, having first been made

by someone else, who was unwilling to share them, he -0ina made them and shared them with

everyone with a cheerful and willing heart.(-6y 131, there were guild regulations in 4enice

governing the sale of eyeglasses. -5

0eated aostle holding lenses in osition for reading. !etail from Death of the Virgin, by theaster of

7eiligen)reu, ca. 19&3 $"etty :enter'.

The earliest ictorial evidence for the use of eyeglasses is Tommaso da odena/s 13%2 ortrait of

the cardinal 7ugh de #rovence reading in a scritorium.*nother early e+amle would be a deiction

of eyeglasses found north of the*lsin an altariece of the church of ad ;ildungen,"ermany,in

193.

These early glasses had conve+ lensesthat could correct both hyeroia$farsightedness', and

theresbyoiathat commonly develos as a symtom of aging. It was not until 169 that

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In 1?5 #rofessor erthold @aufer, a "ermanA*mericananthroologist, stated in his history of

glasses that (the oinion that sectacles originated in India is of the greatest robability and that

sectacles must have been )nown in India earlier than in uroe(. -11-127owever,