Deluxe Class Solid Brass - Wood Captain's Spyglass Telescope 15" w/ Rosewood Box

Glass lenses were originally discovered by the Phoenecians, as described by Pliny, around 5000 BC when cooking fires on the desert sand caused the sand to melt. Along with these earliest glass lenses, natural crystal lenses have been used since before recorded history, and it was this type of lens that was used in the earliest model antique telescopes. In the 13^th Century the English Philosopher Roger Bacon, in his treatise Opus Majus, made mention of “transparent bodies” or lenses, being arranged “with respect to our sight and objects of vision, that the rays will be deflected and bent in any direction,” so that  “we may see the object near or at a distance.” This early description may be one of the first writings on what would later become the brass telescope. The first mentions of using concave and convex lenses for a brass telescope were made in 1589 when Giambattista della Porta wrote “…to make glasses that can recognize a man several miles away,” with both a concave and convex lens together “to see both things afar off, and things near hand.” Though the creator of the very first brass telescope is not known, in 1608 Hans Lippershay became the first person to apply for a patent for the device. Upon hearing of the small brass telescope model, Galileo crafted his own design in 1609, and a year later had created one with enough magnifying power to study Jupiter, the Sun, and the Moon.