Glassy-eyed
SANTINI GOVINDAN
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The history of spectacles and how they came to be used is interesting.
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In 1271, Marco Polo reported that
Chinese nobles in
the court of Kublai Khan were using eyeglasses to read.
Photo: AP
That important look: A sign of superior intelligence?
It is one of the most useful inventions. But it is not clear who invented spectacles. Sofronius Eusebius Hieronymus, (340 to 420 A.D.) is sometimes portrayed as the inventor. He is pictured with a lion, a skull and a pair of glasses. So even though it’s not certain whether he actually invented spectacles, he is the patron saint of spectacle makers.
In ancient Rome, Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus-Cicero, one of Rome’s great writers and statesmen, saying that since he was old, his slaves read aloud to him since he could no longer read himself. There are records that tell us that the Roman tragedian Seneca (4 B.C. — 65 A.D.) who had poor eyesight, read handwritten books in Rome by peering at them through a globe of water.
Monks in the Middle Ages, who had to read handwritten manuscripts, also laid glass spheres against their books to read fine print. These were called ‘reading stones’. The Roman emperor Nero watched gladiators fight, through a polished emerald. In 1271, Marco Polo reported that Chinese nobles in the court of Kublai Khan were using eyeglasses to read.
Reading stones
The first mention of eyeglasses appeared in 1289, in a manuscript in Italy. The author says that if it were not for his glasses he would be unable to read or write. It is generally believed that Venetian glass blowers were the creators of the spectacles we use today.
The oldest known pictorial representation of eyeglasses was in a fresco in the Chapter House of the Dominican Monastery attached to the Basilica of San Niccolo in Treviso. Tommaso da Modena (1325-1379) painted in 1352 and it shows Cardinal Hugh of Provence (1200-1263) wearing a pair of spectacles.
What makes this painting so interesting is the fact that the Cardinal died before spectacles were invented, but the painter added them to his painting to signify old age and learning.
Soon spectacles acquired snob value and only churchmen, scholars, artisans and important people used them.
In China, people regarded eyeglasses as a sign of superior intelligence and nobility. In fact, the size of a man’s spectacles denoted his social status.
A part of the person
Spectacles sometimes become more than a device to help eyesight, and become closely aligned to the personality of the wearer. Mahatma Gandhi is always associated with the simple round Windsor style spectacles with steel frames that he always wore.
Spectacles are an indivisible part of the personality of singers and pop stars like Elton John and John Lennon. Michael Jackson’s mysterious dark glasses add to his enigmatic personality.
Even fictional characters find spectacles indispensable. Superman as Clark Kent hides behind thick, black spectacles. So too, Harry Potter.
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