The reading glasses are a tool that has helped man throughout the centuries, with his seeing difficulties. The first form of spectacles, in Europe was introduced in the middle of the thirteenth century, in renaissance Italy. The idea of creating the first eyeglasses in Italy was probably taken from the translated edition of the Arab book “Book of optics”, which was translated into Latin in the thirteenth century. (http://bereader.se/lasglasogon Läsglasögon)

The useful tool was created to help the elderly, and people with sight difficulties read. The first glasses were created by Dominican friar Giordano da Pisa, who used to two pieces of thin glass which were placed on the eyes. The tool was very useful, but it had one problem, due to the fact the first glasses did not have frames, the glasses used to fall of the person’s eyes all the time, so the “reader”, had to keep the spectacles steady with one of his hands.

The first painted evidence of the vision tool was Tommaso da Modena’s portrait of cardinal Hugh de Provance, reading in a scriptorium, using the new “sight aid”.

Because the glasses constantly used to fall from the reader’s face, the Spaniards were the frst people that tried to keep the spectacles, steadily on the face, with ribbons, tied around the ears. The experiment worked, and those ribbons were the first form of frames in the history of the reading glasses, but that never really caught on. Nearly 500 years after the glasses were introduced in Europe, a London based optician called Edward Scarlett, finally devised the first frames to rest atop the ears of the reader. The perfection was obvious and they are still in use today.

Another interesting fact about glasses is that the first ones that correct astigmatism were created in 1825, by a British astronomer called George Airy.

The American scientist Benjamin Franklin created the bifocals, he suffered from both myopia and presbyopia.

The fashion around Europe about the reading glasses was different around the countries. In France and England, people wore glasses in secret, only to read. There were special models created in order to keep this un secrecy. The women were especially, very secret about their seeing difficulties, because they were afraid that men would not like them in they saw them with glasses. In Spain, thing were a bit different. In Spain, people wore glasses proudly, because they thought that they looked more sophisticated and intelligent with them, and it was a big fashion to wear glasses there, but Spain was a minority, and the rest of the world saw people who need glasses to see more clearly as a handicap.

It is an interesting fact that the first contact lenses were sketched by no other than Leonardo da Vinci in 1508, but the first technology and development to the inventions was created more than three centuries later in 1827 by an English astronomer called Sir John Herschel.

The history of the reading glasses is an interesting story about vanity, technology and fashion at the same time. On the one hand there are the ones, that really need them, and do not hide, from their problems, on the other are the vanity serving ones that hide from the fashion eye.