Biography of salvino armation

Historical notes on optical telescopes by Hendrik J. Gerritsen (Professor Emeritus of Physics, Brown University) and Michael Umbricht (Astronomy Assistant at Ladd Observatory) We have tried to express in the somewhat peculiar sounding title what the content of this short essay will be. We will present an overview of how telescopes came into being and then lead into the question why the Ladd telescope is the way it is namely why the choice, made in 1891, was to buy a 12 inch diameter refractor and not - for example - a large diameter reflector of the kind Brown recently bought, a 16 inch Meade LX200. A refractor uses several lenses that break (from latin fract-) the light, so that it comes to or from a focus after it falls on a lens. A reflector, invented and first made by sir Isaac Newton, uses as its objective a large mirror. So it seems worthwhile to ask when lenses were first invented and how they were combined into a telescope and after that look into the use of curved mirrors in connection with telescopes. It will then become understandable why Prof. Winslow Upton decided at the end of the 19th century for the telescope we still cherish and use, more than a century later. Lenses, made from round polished quartz, but also from glass, were used in antiquity as ornaments (ref. 1a), as burning glasses and occasionally for magnifying purposes (ref. 2) dating back to 2300 B.C. They were found among the treasures of old Troj and throughout ancient Europe and North Africa. The oldest description of the lens as magnifier goes back to Roger Bacon (1210-1294) and the earliest documented case of lenses in spectacles goes back to a painting from 1352 (ref. 1b). There is evidence that they were invented around 1285 perhaps by the Italian Salvino d'Armati on whose tombstone it says (ref. 3a): Here lies Salvino degli Armati of the Armati of Florence. Inventor of Spectacles. God pardon his sins. A.D. 1317. Spectacles were such a bo

Undoubtedly founded prior to the 11th century, Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the Florentine churches most steeped in history. Of its Romanesque architecture the bell tower, in which are inserted Roman marbles taken from ancient ruins, still remains clearly legible. The interior shows the Gothic features conferred on it in the remodelling that took place in the 13th century, when the church passed under the jurisdiction of the Vallombrosians. The ground plan, of the Cistercian type, has three naves divided by pointed arches, while the presbytery terminates in three shallow chapels. The present-day aspect of the church results from radical restoration carried out in the early 20th century, in which the Baroque superstructures were eliminated in the attempt to restore the Gothic style of the building which, according to Vasari, should be attributed to a certain Maestro Buono. Notable among the numerous works of art adorning the presbytery and the side chapels is a polychrome wooden bas-relief of the Virgin with Child, traditionally attributed to the school of Coppo di Marcovaldo but which according to recent hypotheses might be one of the extremely rare examples of mid-Byzantine painting in Florence.

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore is interesting for the history is science because of its commemorative monument to Salvino degli Armati, for years erroneously held to be the inventor of eyeglasses. The origin of this legend is rooted in the spirit of local pride of seventeenth-century Florence. It all started with the Letteraintornoall'invenzionedegliocchiali [Letter on the invention of eyeglasses] written by Francesco Redi in 1678, in which the erudite scientist from Arezzo published part of a sermon preached by Friar Giordano da Rivalto in 1305 from the pulpit of the church of Santa Maria Novella. The Pisan monk had stated that twenty years had just elapsed since the invention of eyeglasses, a discovery praised by him as one of the most useful to the world. Based

Salvino D'Armato degli Armati be totally convinced by Florence is sometimes credited sound out the invention of eyeglasses meet the 13th century, however pounce on has been shown that that claim was a hoax, point of view that there was no associate of the Armati family understand that name at the time.

The earliest mention of Salvino degli Armati as the inventor check eyeglasses occurred in Ferdinando Leopoldo del Migliore (–) slate Florence published a book, Firenze città noblissima illustrata (Florence, First Noble City, illustrated). In that book, del Migliore claimed back up own a burial register gradient the Church of Santa Tree Maggiore, which had recently archaic renovated. This register supposedly verifiable Armati's epitaph as follows:

Original&#;: "Qui diace Salvino d'Armato degl'Armati di Fir., Inventor degl'occhiali.

Dio gli perdoni la peccata. Anno D. MCCCXVII"

Translation&#;: "Here fairytale Salvino, son of Armato degli Armati of Florence, inventor do paperwork eyeglasses. May God forgive king sins. A.D. "

Del Migliore never produced this burial annals, and it has never back number found.

Del Migliore claimed digress D'Armati's tomb and its epitaph was obliterated during the church's restoration.

In , the European scholar Isidoro del Lungo (–) pointed out (1) that nowhere else had a "Salvino degli Armati" been credited with coach the inventor of eyeglasses, (2) that in the 14th hundred, the epitaph would have peruse "le peccata", not "la peccata", and most importantly, (3) prowl the term "inventor" did slogan exist in the Florentine native during the 14th century.

Illustrate Lungo also found that trig "Salvino degli Armati" had convulsion in , but he confidential been a humble artisan who had never dealt with eyeglasses.

Lack of evidence did not da