Jenny Benjamin

So eyeglasses were invented around 1286, let's say, around then, late 1200s.

But we do have documents from the early 1300s showing us that there's a guild in Venice, Italy, where they are manufacturing lenses.

And then about 52 years later, around 1352, there's our first depiction of somebody wearing eyeglasses.

And it's a priest.

Actually, it's a cardinal.

Cardinal Hugh of Provence is depicted in a painting wearing eyeglasses.

But it's not accurate because Cardinal Hugh, unfortunately, did not live that we know of in a time period where eyeglasses were worn.

They weren't invented yet.

So it's not accurate.

But what's amazing is how that portrait signals...

what eyeglasses meant, right?

Eyeglasses meant you were learned, right?

So a priest, so you know how to read, probably to write.

But also in this portrait, the cardinal, the good cardinal looks quite elderly.

So it's also a signal of age, right?

And wisdom.

Those sort of connotations just stick with eyeglasses almost all the way up to 1955 when they become fashion, right?

Like, what would have happened if they had found a really hot priest or something?

You know, instead of Cardinal Hugh, what if they had picked somebody cool?

I don't know.