Museum of Glasses Salerno

The great poet used glasses for presbyopia to finish his work.

Dante, the supreme poet, born in 1265, to finish his majestic work, the Divine Comedy, had to use glasses for presbyopia, recently invented. Compliments to the inventor of these with the following triplets.
Dante, having learned the news of the death of Salvino degli Armati, the manufacturer of his glasses, in gratitude he would have dedicated a second version of the famous triplets that open the song of Hell. Hence the discovery of the Dante manuscript, dated precisely 1317. Here is the content:

"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai in una selva oscura:
la vista da vicino era smarrita.

Ah quanto a dir qual era cosa dura
Questa visione cos'ì incerta e ria
Che mi impediva ormai ogni lettura.

Per affrancarmi dalla presbiopia
Arrivo in mio soccorso in fiorentino:
che con occhiali all' uopo ben dostai,

ridiede giusto fuoco al cristallino,
per cui devo a Salvino degli Armati,
se ancor posso vergar verso divino."

"In the middle of our life's journey
I found myself in a dark forest:
the close-up view was lost.

Ah, to say what was hard
This vision is so uncertain and so
That now prevented me from reading.

To free myself from presbyopia
Arrival in my rescue in Florence:
that with properly designed glasses,

get right focus on the crystalline lens,
so I owe to Salvino degli Armati,
if I still can vergar toward divine. "