Dr. Moll on the Invention of Telescopes. 487 



man then at the fair, that an instrument had been invented 

 which magnified objects and made them appear near. He 

 wanted to procure one of these glasses, but the Dutchman 

 asked too high a price ; but being returned to Onoldsbach, 

 Fuchs told the circumstance to Marius, adding that the instru- 

 ment had two glasses, one convex and one concave, of which 

 he even drew the figures. Marius adjusted glasses of thii 

 form, and convinced himself, to a certain point, of the possi- 

 bility of the thing ; but his object glass was too convex. He 

 ordered some other glasses of the opticians of Nurenberg ; but 

 he could procure none that suited his purpose. The next sum- 

 mer, of 1609, Fuchs got a tolerable instrument from Holland, 

 which he used with Marius in examining the heavens. About 

 the beginning of 1610, Fuchs got two well-polished glasses 

 from Venice, where they had been worked by T. B. Lanccius, 

 recently returned from Holland. 



If the account of Marius deserves credit, the person who 

 brought the telescope to the Franckfort mass or fair, in Sep- 

 tember, 1608, did so a short time before Lippershey presented 

 his petition to the States, which was done the 2d of October of 

 that year. Fuchs, certainly with great reason, thought the 

 Dutch telescopes high priced ; we have seen Lippershey ask- 

 ing a thousand florins for one. 



We are indebted to the English author of the Life of Galileo 

 for an instance of another Dutch telescope being brought to 

 Italy. Lorenzo Pignoria writes to Paolo Gualdo, from Padrea, 

 the 31st of August, 1609, * We have no news, except the 

 return of his Serene Highness, and the re-election of the lec- 

 turers, among whom Signor Galileo has contrived to get 1000 

 florins for life, and it is said to be on account of an eye-glass, 

 like the one which was sent from Flanders to the Cardinal 

 Borghese. We have seen some here, and they succeed well.' 



It will, after all, be very difficult to deny, that not only the 

 rumour of the invention, but even some telescopes actually 

 made, reached Italy from Holland, before Galileo ever made 

 such an instrument. In May, 1609, there was a telescope in 

 the hands of the Count de Fuentes. Another was in the pos- 

 session of Cardinal Borghese; Lanccius, who came from 

 Holland, is said to have made telescopic glasses at Venice ; 



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