584 SUMMARY OF OURKENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ocularia fiunt tantse densitatis ut si per ea quis aut Lunam, aut aliud 

 syderum spectet adeo propiuqua ilia judicet. ut ne turres ipsas excedant " 

 ■ — words which, misunderstood by some, made people believe that Fracas- 

 toro was aware of the telescope, whilst in this passage he only makes 

 mention of simple lenses, and like one who did not know the theory of 

 them and had studied insufficiently their effects, exaggerates their efficacy, 

 imagining lenses powerful enough to enlarge the moon, as simple 

 spectacles or as two spectacles placed one over the other enlarge the 

 letters of a book. 



Giambattista della Porta repeated later in his ' Magia Naturale ' (31) 

 the same things, and almost in the same words, so that many (and 

 amongst others Kepler) attributed to him the invention of the Dutch 

 telescope, which he himself (after having seen it once) imagined he 

 had invented, although Stotiola his friend relates (32) that he died 

 of fatigue in trying to discover the cause of it, which he could not 

 fathom. 



The man who under the name of Alimberto Mauri dictated some of 

 the ' Considerazioni sopra alcuni luogi del Discorso di Lodovico delle 

 Colombo intorno alia stella apparita nel 1604 (' Eeflections on some 

 passages of the Discourse of Lodovico delle Colombo about the star 

 which appeared in 1604 '), (33) speaks also in 1606 of the enlargement 

 obtained with the lenses of spectacles, and therefore with the simple 

 Microscope. Del'e Oolombe suspected this to have been suggested if 

 not written by Galileo. (34) 



" Although," says Mauri, " spectacles were discovered for the first 

 time in 1280, (35) nevertheless their use having in this long lapse of 

 time entirely fallen to base objects, has never been, until now by you, 

 employed and adapted in favour of astrology and high and celestial 

 things." 



And here, in order to dissipate the suspicion that Delle Colombo 

 had invented the telescope in 1605, one must know that Alimberto 

 Mauri, by the words now quoted, wished to ridicule a strange thought 

 of Delle Colombo, who to explain the appearance of the new star of 1604, 

 attributed the function of a large lens to a part of the " crystalline 

 heavens " interposed between our eyes and the " primum mobile," where 

 the new star was situated. 



" Because," says Ludovico delle Colombe, (36) " in the case of an object 

 which is not seen on account of its distance, if we come near to it, or if 

 the transparent medium through which we look magnifies it, wo see it 

 as distinctly as objects are seen clearly and as if they were near, by 

 those persons who having short sight, by means of spectacles which 

 represent visible objects magnified, discover those things which without 

 the aid of such means they could not see. . . . 



" It therefore appears that the new star and other similar stars which 

 have appeared at divers times, and which may possibly be seen here- 

 after, are true and real stars created in the heavens from the beginning, 

 but in the primum mobile, and rendered visible by some denser parts of 

 the crystalline heavens situated beneath." 



In the year 1612 they used without doubt lenses or simple Micro- 

 scopes to see things enlarged, for Boccalini in his 'Eagguagli di 

 Parnasso,' published that year, writes thus : — 



" But most admirable are those occhiali, made with such art that 

 they make fleas look like elephants, pigmies like giants. These are 



