Who did invent eyeglasses and when?

Glasses (also called eyeglasses or spectacles) are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes, normally for vision correction, eye protection, or for protection from UV rays. The earliest historical reference to magnification dates back to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 5th century BC, which depict "simple glass meniscal lenses". The earliest written record of magnification dates back to the 1st century AD, when Seneca the Younger, a tutor of Emperor Nero, wrote: "Letters, however small and indistinct, are seen enlarged and more clearly through a globe or glass filled with water". Emperor Nero is also said to have watched the gladiatorial games using an emerald as a corrective lens.

Robert Grosseteste's treatise De iride ("On the Rainbow"), written no later than 1235, mentions using optics to "read the smallest letters at incredible distances". A few years later, Roger Bacon is also known to have made one of the first recorded references to the magnifying properties of lenses in 1262.

Sunglasses, in the form of flat panes of smoky quartz, protected the eyes from glare and were used in China in the 12th century or possibly earlier. However, they did not offer any corrective benefits.