Who really invented glasses?

广饶眼镜

A number of popular traditions hold that spectacles were invented by one Salvino degli Armati, a Florentine, whose tombstone stayed: “ Here lies Salvino d’Armato degli Armati of Florence, inverntor of spectacles – may God forgive him his sins – 1317”. However there is little doubt that spectacles were invented in Italy on the mid-12th centure, since there were precise laws in Venice in 1300 covering the production of eyeglasses. Several historic texts confirm that at the turn of the 13th century spectacles were commonly used and probably the invention came to develop simultaneously in several different countries at the same time. It is certain, however , that the Venetian chapters were the milestone, not for the invention being fathered by one single person, but by a city: Venice.