When were glasses invented? A history of eyewear from Nero to smart frames

In short: Glasses were invented in northern Italy in the late 1280s. No one knows who made the first pair, but a 1306 sermon by the friar Giordano da Pisa says the craft was less than 20 years old. Before then, people enlarged text with glass "reading stones" laid flat on the page. Later came side arms, bifocals, varifocals and today's smart glasses.

Who this guide is for: Anyone curious about where glasses came from, and how more than 700 years of small improvements led to the prescription glasses and contact lenses we wear today.

The eyewear timeline at a glance

Who invented glasses?

Nobody knows for certain. The strongest clue comes from Giordano da Pisa, an Italian Dominican friar. Preaching in Florence in February 1306, he said the art of making glasses had been discovered less than 20 years earlier. He added that he had met the man who first made them, but he never gave a name. Some sources date the sermon to 1305, because Florence started its new year on 25th March.

Later claims don't hold up well. A tomb inscription naming Salvino degli Armati of Florence as the inventor turned out to be a 17th-century fabrication. Alessandro della Spina, a friar in Pisa, is recorded as making glasses and sharing the method, but not as the first to do so.

So, when were glasses actually invented, if not by one named person? The best answer is the 1280s, in northern Italy. The region, and Venice in particular, led Europe's glass trade. Venetian state decrees from 1300 already refer to reading lenses.

Before glasses: ancient visual aids

People used lenses long before anyone wore them.

• Rome, 1st century AD

  Pliny the Elder wrote that Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights through a green gem, though it may have served as a mirror or shade rather than a lens. Around the same time, the writer Seneca noted that letters look larger through a glass globe filled with water.

• The Arab world, 11th century

  Scholars experimented with glass and light. Around 1011–1021, Ibn al-Haytham (known in Europe as Alhazen) wrote his Book of Optics, which described how curved glass could magnify objects.

• Europe, from the end of the 12th century

  Ibn al-Haytham's work was translated into Latin. Reading stones followed. These polished glass domes were laid flat on a page to enlarge the text, an early form of magnifying glasses. Monks and scholars used them to help with presbyopia, the age-related loss of close-up focus.

13th century: the first wearable glasses

By the late 13th century, lenses moved from the page to the face. The first glasses were "rivet spectacles": two lenses in round frames, joined by a pin at the top. You balanced them on your nose or held them in place.

Lenses were cut from quartz or glass and set in frames of bone, wood, metal or leather. They were all convex lenses, so they helped with long sight (far-sightedness) and age-related vision problems, making reading and close work easier. They didn't help with distance vision.

The oldest known painting of someone wearing glasses dates from 1352. It's a fresco by Tommaso da Modena in Treviso, Italy, showing Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher reading with a pair perched on his nose.

15th–16th centuries: printing boosts demand

Johannes Gutenberg's printing press arrived in the 1400s. More books meant more readers, and more readers meant more demand for glasses. Two changes followed:

• Concave lenses for short sight

Lenses for (near-sightedness) were in use by the late 15th century, so glasses could now help with distance vision too.

• New ways to keep glasses on appeared

This included ribbons tied behind the ears and frames that gripped the bridge of the nose. These nose-grip designs were early forerunners of the pince-nez ("pinch-nose"), which became popular in the 19th century.

Spectacles in a 1466 altarpiece by Friedrich Herlin, Rothenburg, Germany.

17th century: science explains how lenses work

Opticians knew lenses worked long before anyone knew why. In his optics books of 1604 and 1611, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler explained how the eye focuses light. He showed that concave lenses correct myopia (short sight) and convex lenses correct hyperopia (long sight).

18th century: side arms, scissor glasses and bifocals

Side arms

Around 1727, the London optician Edward Scarlett added rigid side arms (temples) that pressed against the sides of the head. They stopped short of the ears, but the principle is the same as the one you wear today.

Scissor glasses, lorgnettes and monocles

Late in the century, a new type of glasses became fashionable: scissor glasses. Two lenses sat on a handle that split like a pair of scissors, and you held them up to your eyes. They led to the lorgnette (lenses on a single handle). Monocles developed separately. All three were as much about status as sight.

Who invented bifocal glasses?

Benjamin Franklin. By the mid-1780s, he was wearing what he called "double spectacles", with a distance lens on top and a reading lens below. It meant he no longer needed to swap between two pairs.

19th century: astigmatism, steel frames and contact lenses

• 1801 The British scientist Thomas Young described astigmatism, a blur caused by an unevenly curved eye. In 1825, the astronomer George Airy made the first cylindrical lenses to correct it.

• Steel wire frames made glasses lighter, cheaper and easier to mass-produce.

• The pince-nez reached its peak in popularity.

• 1888. The German doctor Adolf Fick fitted the first glass contact lenses.

Anton Chekhov wearing a pince-nez, late 19th century.

20th century: the NHS, varifocals and eyewear as fashion

The NHS makes glasses available to millions

The NHS launched on 5 July 1948. From day one, it offered free eye tests and glasses. Demand from new glasses wearers was so high that charges for glasses were introduced in 1951. Seeing an optometrist for a regular eye test soon became a normal part of looking after your eyes.

Round wire frames, a style that spread with mass production in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Plastic frames, plastic lenses and style

Plastic made frames cheaper, lighter and available in far more colours. From the mid-20th century, plastic lenses also replaced glass for many wearers, because they're lighter and less likely to shatter.

Glasses became a style choice, not just a medical one. Think cat-eye frames in the 1950s, worn by stars like Marilyn Monroe, and oversized frames in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of those shapes are back, and today's round frames owe a lot to them.

Varifocals

The first commercially successful varifocal lens, Varilux, launched in 1959. It was designed by Bernard Maitenaz at the French company now known as Essilor, part of the same group as Glasses Direct. Unlike bifocals, varifocals have no visible line, so focus shifts smoothly from near to far.

Sunglasses

Tinted lenses go back further than you might think. In 12th-century China, judges were said to have worn flat panes of smoky quartz to hide their expressions in court. Mass-market sunglasses took off in the 20th century, and today you can get prescription sunglasses made to your strength.

Soft contact lenses

Soft contact lenses reached UK patients in the 1960s, giving millions of people a more comfortable alternative to hard lenses.

Today: blue light filters, smart glasses and hearing support

Blue light filters

Lenses that filter part of the short-wavelength blue light range (380–500nm, as described by ISO/TR 20772:2018) have become popular. Some people who spend long days at a screen prefer them.

It's worth knowing where blue light comes from. The main source, including blue-violet light, is sunlight, even indoors, not your monitor. And while some products are labelled "blue-light blocking", it's more accurate to say they filter part of that band, not all of it.

Modern blue light glasses for gaming and computer use.

Smart glasses and hearing support

Smart glasses like Ray-Ban® Meta build cameras, speakers and live-streaming into the frame. Some frames now include built-in hearing support, combining sight and sound in one pair.

What's next for glasses?

The next changes are already under way. More frames use bio-based and recycled materials. Light-adaptive lenses darken outdoors and clear indoors. And buying prescription glasses online is easier than ever, with Virtual Try-on and a free Home Trial that lets you try up to four frames at home for seven days.

When were eyeglasses invented? More than 700 years ago, in the workshops of northern Italy. Every pair made since, including yours, builds on that idea.

FAQs: When were glasses invented?

When were glasses invented, exactly?

In the 1280s, in northern Italy. A sermon given in Florence in 1306 says the craft had been discovered less than 20 years earlier.

Who invented glasses?

Nobody knows. The friar who dated the invention in 1306 said he had met the inventor but didn't name him. Later claims naming Salvino degli Armati are now considered a fabrication.

When were spectacles invented, and are spectacles the same as glasses?

Yes, spectacles and glasses are the same thing. Spectacles were invented at the same time, in late 13th-century Italy. "Spectacles" is simply the older, more formal word.

When did glasses get arms that hook over the ears?

Rigid side arms arrived around 1727 and are credited to London optician Edward Scarlett. His arms pressed against the temples. Arms that curve over the ears became common later in the 18th century.

Who invented bifocal glasses?

Benjamin Franklin, who was wearing bifocals by the mid-1780s. He combined distance and reading lenses in one frame, so he didn't need two pairs.

When were varifocals invented?

In 1959. Bernard Maitenaz designed Varilux, the first commercially successful varifocal lens, at the company now known as Essilor.

Were glasses ever free on the NHS?

Yes. When the NHS launched in July 1948, eye tests and glasses were free for everyone. Charges for glasses were introduced in 1951. Today, free NHS sight tests and optical vouchers are available to eligible groups, such as children under 16.

Sources & further reading

• University of Oxford, Cabinet: “Spectacles: technology unknown to the ancients”
• Medievalists.net: “Medieval eyeglasses: wearable technology of the thirteenth century”
• The Times: “Why the eyes of the world really turned to Venice”
• Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes (American Philosophical Society, 2007)
• College of Optometrists, British Optical Association Museum: “The history of spectacles”
• College of Optometrists: “The history of contact lenses”
• Museo Galileo: Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (the Salvino degli Armati hoax)
• Founders Online: Benjamin Franklin to George Whatley, 21 August 1784
• David Woods, “Pliny, Nero, and the ‘Emerald’”, Arctos 40 (2006)
• Seneca, Natural Questions, Book 1 (trans. John Clarke, 1910), Project Gutenberg
• University of Reading Special Collections: ‘Johannes Kepler – Astronomiae Pars Optica
• National Health Service Act 1951
• ISO/TR 20772:2018, Ophthalmic optics: short wavelength visible solar radiation and the eye