Medieval Spectacles

[Sir Edward]

One of the problems I have with getting a complete historical look is the fact that I'm blind as a bat without my glasses. Bright sun sometimes gives me migraines, hence all the renfaire photos with my wearing prescription sunglasses.

I'm considering looking into disposable contacts to wear to events, even if I can't get them with enough astigmatism correction.

But anyway, this is cool:

http://medievalnews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/early-printed-book-contains-rare.html

Technically spectacles have existed for all of the relevant era that I'm interested in. Granted, they looked very different back then... I'm wondering if I could get a replica and then get prescription lenses from an eyeglass shop to fit them. If nothing else, it would be a cool conversation piece.

[Sir Wolf]

http://larsdatter.com/eyeglasses.htm check here for references

[Sir William]

I think any eye specialist could craft lenses to fit those frames.  Go for it!

[Sir Wolf]

i know a lot of people that have the wooden bend in the middle eye glasses with modern prescriptions. i dont remember where they got them. i can find out

[Sir James A]

i know a lot of people that have the wooden bend in the middle eye glasses with modern prescriptions. i dont remember where they got them. i can find out

I've seen pics on the videos for one of the european groups. One guy made his own frames and bought the lenses, and they looked completely historical - though with no ear piece, so I'm not sure how 'practical' they would be. I'll try to dig up the link.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, I've seen photos of the ones that are hinged in the middle and made of bone. Not practical for all-day wear, they were really just meant for reading at the time.

[VaughnStrever]

I like those wooden spectacles, they have always caught my eyes when ever I would see them

[Sir James A]

http://www.dragonbane.org/attachment/f20c14076824322fa2a4f3c2d7b6c3fc/29151d00b54d540a29ddbc34da616b9d/making_historical_eyeglasses1.pdf

Not the page I was thinking of, but the same style - http://www.squidoo.com/look_more_medieval

And some general info you've probably already seen - http://www.antiquespectacles.com/history/ages/through_the_ages.htm

[SirNathanQ]

good piece for Days of Knights, eh Sir Ed? 

[Sir Edward]

good piece for Days of Knights, eh Sir Ed? 

That's what I was thinking. But I may end up just having to look into contact lenses. If I can get disposables, even if they don't fully correct the astigmatism and can just be "close enough", that might do the trick. But never having done contacts, I'm not sure how well I can get them in. I have some vampire contacts I bought for Halloween, and I failed miserably. I tried for like an hour to get them in. But they're much bigger than corrective lenses, so who knows.

[Sir Brian]

I was kicking around the idea of getting contacts myself...hoping that perhaps my sword skills would improve a smidgen.

[Sir Rodney]

I use contact lenses, but my weapon skills haven't seemed to improve much. 

If you go this route, always bring a back-up pair.  You will never lose a contact in combat, unless you forget the back-ups.  Murphy's Law makes it so.

[Sir Brian]

I use contact lenses, but my weapon skills haven't seemed to improve much. 

If you go this route, always bring a back-up pair.  You will never lose a contact in combat, unless you forget the back-ups.  Murphy's Law makes it so.

Yeah that will most likely be my result as well! As it stands now it is the only vague excuse I'll sometimes allow my abused ego to use before shocking it with the cold stark reality that practice and more practice would garner better results than excuses!

[Sir Gerard de Rodes]

Sir Ed, if you don`t have any luck with contacts and still want period glasses, Trevor Timms comes highly recomended and will fit prescription lenses.
http://www.periodglasses.com/index.html

G.

[Sir James A]

I found a set of historical specs that would look *perfect* with armor.

Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight - the helm presented to Henry VIII from Maximilian I. It's in the top left corner, but I forgot the page number.