No. 1 · This week
Living beforeglasses
One pair of glasses cost a good horse
The second pair a Ming writer saw. The first was an emperor’s gift.
Not history, a joke. A three-eyed man is fitted for glasses in a Hokusai print of 1834.
- Image:
- Katsushika Hokusai, a man with three eyes fitted with spectacles, coloured woodcut, 1834. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
- Source:
- Zhang Ning, Fangzhou za lu (Ming), via Gujin tushu jicheng (1726), our translation; National Eye Institute; Baldanzi and Farini 2024
Somewhere between 40 and 55 the small print drifts away. Here is what Rome knew, and what Florence, Ming China and Japan did about it.
Read the entry →People had teeth before toothbrushes.
Edited by Alex Vita