Romans made vessels by glass blowing starting 1st century AD 1185 first spectacles appeared Two Italians are usually quoted as first one to make spectacles -Alexandro della Spina, a Dominican monk of Pisa, and his friend Salvino d'Armati of Florence. Spina died in 1313 and that Armati's tombstone bears the frequently quoted inscription: Here lies Salvino degli Armato of the Armati of Florence. Inventor of Spectacles. God pardon his sins. A.D.1317. The Venetian industry exported its mirrors to royalty and private bourgeois clients across Europe in the late 1500's and 1600's galerie de glaces. Hall of mirrors in Palace of Versailles were constructed under the order of Louis XIV 1678-1684 a brass-decorated telescope ( magnifying glass?) was among objects bequeathed by a Spaniard, Don Pedro de Carolona , to his widow in Barcelona in 1593. Nick Pelling (controversial) 1608 Dutch optician Hans Lippershey attempted to patent the first telescope Ippolito Francini , Galileo ...