A brief history of glasses
Written by Colin Asher on 11 Mar 2026
We’d like to take a closer look at one of the greatest of all inventions. What’s that, you ask? Well, glasses, of course! Isn’t it about time we paused for a moment to appreciate the intricate history that brought glasses to your eyes?
Pre-glasses era (before 13th century)
Eyewear evolved along different trajectories in the East and West, but finding anything to improve your vision before the 13th century was a lot to ask. Since vision enhancements worn on one’s face took long to appear, your best option for at least a thousand years would’ve been reading stones. Made from crystalline rocks or glass, these smoothed pieces were held over text to magnify the letters, and wouldn’t gain widespread use until the 12th century.1
Other evidence of early visual aids includes an oft-mentioned anecdote of Emperor Nero using a polished green emerald to magnify the action at the Coliseum–though perhaps it was only to shield an eye from the sun. A significant indication of glasses evolution appears among the Chinese, who were recorded to have a form of sunglasses with coloured crystals as early as the time of Confucius, around 500 BCE. Particularly in the East, there’s evidence that glasses for sun glare, or simply ornamentation, predate glasses for vision correction.2
Something close to wearable glasses was also to be found among the Inuit and Yupik people of Alaska, Northern Canada and other arctic regions, who had to contend with sun reflections from snow. Since at least 1000 CE, Arctic peoples made sun goggles out of walrus ivory without lenses, but with thin eye slits to look through, effectively blocking out much of the snow glare3. These beautifully carved shades were often held on by a leather string4, making them remarkably ahead of their time, since we shall see that eyeglass design tended to peculiarly avoid straightforward methods of attachment for centuries.
Early glasses (13th-15th century)
The first corrective eyeglasses are often marked from the second half of the 13th century in Italy, though in China they likely appeared even earlier. The island of Murano, near Venice, was home to secretive, state-of-the art glassworking facilities that manufactured some of the first glasses lenses in Europe5.
Eyeglasses usage subsequently gained popularity among monks in the 14th century, who used them for reading and transcription. However, these early glasses were always convex lenses, which helped with close vision magnification, not distance. Thanks to the rise of the printing press in the 1450s, the new mass production of reading material begat a surge in eyeglass manufacturing.
The proper design was still a long way off. Among various attempts, history gave us the pince-nez, that famed dandy accoutrement intended to anchor to your nose; handheld lorgnettes, a ballroom accessory designed for fashionably languid use; and the monocle, that historically evocative single lens, held into the eye socket by sheer willpower. It's plain to see that glasses design mutated over the centuries with the often comical results endured by many other indelible inventions like the bicycle.
Advancements in lenses and frames (16th-19th century)
As for distance vision and how it’s understood, let’s credit German astronomer and polymath Johannes Kepler in 1604 with the first written explanation of why convex and concave lenses produce different optical results, leading to the rise of lenses for distance vision6. But the perfect marriage of frame and lens was still yet to catch on in the West, particularly in affluent society.
Why did society for so long settle for eyeglasses that had to be manually held in place, or which stayed on only by the most precarious means? The reasons that centuries elapsed before the classic glasses design emerged–two temple pieces extending along one’s head–are not frequently discussed.
One explanation may be the discomfort of wearing glasses underneath the gigantic faux periwigs worn at the time, which reportedly pinched tight on one’s head. Historical context also indicates stigma about the appearance of glasses–the alteration of the human face–suggesting that those who required them would elegantly remove them the moment they were no longer needed. This would account for the resurgence in the Victorian era of the pince-nez and the monocle, well after proper spectacles had been introduced7. Conversely, in China, glasses were a sign of dignity and were tied on with string more frequently throughout history8.
To the rescue of Europe was the enterprising Edward Scarlett. In the rare moment that anyone stops to dispense credit for saving the design of eyeglasses in the West, one tends to credit Mr. Scarlett, who, in his London shop in 1727, finally decided to produce wearable glasses with two steel hinged temple pieces to wrap along the side of your head and keep your glasses on. Considering what Mr. Scarlett did for glasses design, he should certainly be more the household name9.
But as Mr. Scarlett didn’t also help craft the core of American democracy, he usually gets overshadowed by United States founding father Benjamin Franklin, who enjoys parallel status as a figurehead of glasses evolution. Franklin is often credited as the inventor of bifocals in 1784, when he wrote of having his reading and distance lenses cut in half and joined together. Like many legendary attributions of inventorship, some doubt its accuracy. While it’s possible Franklin wasn’t the only person to conceive of this creation10, the truth might be even stranger than what’s commonly known, since there is also evidence of Franklin discussing bifocals in 1724 – about fifty years earlier than his purported invention year11. Franklin would go on to proudly wear bifocals during his life and happily let this invention spread through society without personal profit.
Astigmatism correction would come later in 1801 by Thomas Young, who first reported the condition. Young created subtly cylindrical lenses to correct issues of distortion, and glasses prescription forms include to this very day a space for cylinder correction12.
Modernization of glasses (20th century and beyond)
The 20th century saw new synthetic materials used for glasses frames and the advent of many styles such as aviators and cat eyes that continue to be popular in today's world.
The bifocal model evolved as well in the 1950s when progressive lenses came into play, thus surpassing the limitations of split-plane bifocals and delivering a smoother transitioning lens.
Today glasses continue to evolve in form and function. Take blue light blocking glasses, for example, which adapted to humans’ use of digital screens. It’s hard to believe that after 800 centuries spectacles technology is still evolving to give us something new to appreciate.
Sources
1. Rosenthal, William J. M.D. (1996). Spectacles and Other Vision Aids: A History and Guide to Collecting. Norman Publishing. p. 230
2. Rosenthal 1996, p. 26
3. Rosenthal 1996, p. 278
4. Smithsonian, These Snow Goggles Demonstrate Thousands of Years...
5. Original Murano Glass Furnace & Showroom, The History of Murano Glass...
6. University of Reading Special Collections, Johannes Kepler – Astronomiae Pars Optica
7. Rosenthal 1996, p. 231
8. Rosenthal 1996, p. 65-66
9. The College of Optometrists, The Inventor of Bifocals?
10. The National Library of Medicine, The invention and early manufacture of bifocals
11. Ed Scarlett, Inventor of the Spectacle Frame
12. The National Library of Medicine, Beginnings of Astigmatism Management...
Comments