Spectacles first mentioned in Pisa

1289

The Dominican preacher Giordano da Pisa mentioned that it was not yet twenty years since the art of making reading spectacles had been discovered. His sermon is among the earliest securely datable references to eyeglasses, an invention credited to a Venetian or Pisan craftsman. The sermon's casual reference suggests that spectacles had already become common enough among educated Italians to require no further explanation.