There are different opinions on who actually first invented lenses and the eyewear that holds them. Some say it was Robert Bacon in 1276. Others say eyewear was developed in Germany around 1260. Still others claim that the son of an aristocratic Florentine family invented eyeglasses in Italy in 1285. The actual truth is hard to track. But we do know that the idea was conceived sometime near the end of the thirteenth century. 

The original eyewear was composed of two lenses in some kind of holder that allowed the individual to look through both lenses at once. Though we don’t know for sure, historians assume that the lens holder was one of two types: one which required the wearer to hold a thin rod (attached to a lens) in each hand, or a kind of leather blindfold which contained the lenses. If this seems a little primitive, remember that this was still somewhere in the Middle Ages. Marco Polo had not yet traveled to China, and Columbus had not yet discovered America. 

At first, very few people wore eyeglasses, for several reasons. The eyewear was rather strange looking and viewed with suspicion by many. Very few people could read or write; those who could, church clergy and those in the privileged classes, read and wrote in large, out-sized letters on parchment. And, of course, the lifespan of people living in the Middle Ages was quite short; many people died before their eyes began to need correction for reading. Also, superstition was strong in the Middle Ages. Science was viewed as something demonic, and scientific developments were largely ignored. Scientists were often not so lucky. If they escaped with their skin they were fortunate—many were burned at the stake or hanged. Finally, spectacles, as eyeglasses have been referred to, were very expensive and out of reach for most people. Even three hundred years later a pair of eyeglasses cost an average of about sixty dollars, a large sum of money in those days. 

By the late sixteenth century, spectacle makers were at last making a living at their trade. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the first trade guild was formed in Germany. Later in the seventeenth century, other changes began to occur. Nose glasses started to appear, and optical stores were set up. Their products were now more generally accepted by the public. 

By the beginning of the nineteenth century some understanding of visual and ocular anatomy was developed. But modern eyewear did not really arrive on the scene until the mid-1800s. The primary work was done by a Dutch ophthalmologist, Dr. Donders, and a German professor, Professor Helmholtz. Between them they established the basis of what we know about the healthy eye and its operation.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, and into the first part of the twentieth, eyeglasses were considered ugly, and most people did not want to wear them. Modern dispensing really came to life in the mid-1930s with the development of plastic frames. At last, eyewear was something that could be attractive, an addition to the wearer, not something to be hated and avoided.