Salvino D'Armate of Pisa is credited with inventing eyeglasses some time in the thirteenth century, perhaps around 1284. Alessandro Spina of Florence is sometimes also credited with the invention. However, there is some doubt as to the identity of the inventor.

The earliest eyeglasses were for the correction of hyperopia (farsightedness). Eyeglasses to correct myopia (nearsightedness) were not invented until the fifteenth century.