Glasses, A Medieval Invention

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  • Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
  • Glasses, eyeglasses, spectacles, whatever you call those lenses that you wear on your face, you may have wondered where they came from. And by that I don't mean your local optician. As it turns out, they have an interesting history which passes through ancient Greece, the Islamic world, and into medieval Europe. They are one of several medieval inventions and developments which have shaped the world of today, and, for many of us, our very lives.
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    Outro music: Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY-SA 4.0
    incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
    #medieval #medievalhistory #optics #glasses #educational #history #spectacles #inventions #italy #glass #islamichistory #ptolemy #historyofscience #historyofmedicine #venice #rogerbacon

КОМЕНТАРІ • 18

  • @Dowlphin
    @Dowlphin 6 місяців тому +8

    Spectacular video.

  • @TriBgarage
    @TriBgarage 11 місяців тому +11

    You don't always think on how everyday objects came to be. And how those people have improved my personal way of life.

  • @CambrianChronicles
    @CambrianChronicles 11 місяців тому +9

    Super interesting video as always! It makes me wonder if we have any references to people described as having blurred or impaired vision before those corrective lenses were reintroduced into Europe.

    • @studiumhistoriae
      @studiumhistoriae  11 місяців тому +2

      I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there must be some. I know Petrarch praised the invention of glasses, saying he needed them once he turned 60.

  • @williambock1821
    @williambock1821 11 місяців тому +6

    I recently noticed I could benefit from reading glasses. This was the first video I watched with my new blue light blocking reading glasses. My first pair that aren’t just sun glasses. 👀

  • @wertperch
    @wertperch 11 місяців тому +5

    As someone whose arms are not long enough to be able to read, I am most grateful for my spectacles! Also for this wonderful history.

  • @qboxer
    @qboxer 11 місяців тому +3

    Excellent video!

  • @aek12
    @aek12 6 місяців тому +2

    Damn, I never someone would be interested in this subject, I always thought about it

    • @studiumhistoriae
      @studiumhistoriae  6 місяців тому

      You're lucky I have such weird interests 😆

  • @kuru9157
    @kuru9157 11 місяців тому +2

    I'm often amazed by how "early" certain things were invented, especially ones relating to medicine. I usually tend to think of the past as just being generally sucky, especially due me being reliant on modern medicine to stay sane (I have bipolar).

    • @Libertaro-i2u
      @Libertaro-i2u 14 днів тому +1

      To be sure, the medieval period was sucky. Heck, even the late 19th and early 20th century were terrible by today's standards, but almost every era had a silver lining or two, and for the middle ages, the invention of eyeglasses 👓 was one of the silver linings.

  • @_Wombat
    @_Wombat 11 місяців тому +3

    Interesting that they didn't develop anything to actually hold them onto the face. Even while reading in short bursts this would be helpful. Maybe it was a bit like double-strapping your rucksack at school, seriously uncool in the medieval world.

    • @Libertaro-i2u
      @Libertaro-i2u 14 днів тому

      They likely did have rudimentary ways of keeping the glasses on, like the rivet spectacles might have been able to tighten on the nose.

  • @Libertaro-i2u
    @Libertaro-i2u 14 днів тому

    And for something that was invented in the medieval era, eyeglasses do have lots of staying power, given that nowadays a sizeable chunk of the population of the developed world wears glasses. And I doubt the medievals would have been able to fathom the sheer variety of eyeglasses and sunglasses now available, and in fact it's partially due to this evolution that glasses have not only survived to the present day, but are more common nowadays than they were in the medieval period. 🕶️ 🤓

  • @-Selcouth
    @-Selcouth 11 місяців тому

    cool

  • @Mikathewitch
    @Mikathewitch 11 місяців тому +2

    Obligatory algorithm comment

  • @deborahberger5816
    @deborahberger5816 5 місяців тому +3

    Have you ever noticed how, in old movies, a man with glasses is always some kind of professor? But a woman with glasses is a frump who shape-shifts into a stylish beauty when she changes her clothes and takes off her specs? All the better for her, if she can't see the cad who prejudged her!