The Historical Problem of the Invention of the Telescope

E.g., de Dominis Marcantonio , De radiis et lucis in vitris perspectivis et iride (Venice, 1611), preface, written by Giovanni Bartoli.

Rosen Edward , “Did Galileo claim he invented the telescope?”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, xcviii (1954), 304–12.

Hartner Willy , “Galileo's contribution to astronomy”, Galileo man of science (ed. McMullin Ernan , New York, 1967), 178–94, pp. 180, 192, n. 2.

Oliver Lodge claimed that Lipperhey invented the astronomical telescope and then, based on a rumour, Galileo invented the ‘Dutch’ or ‘Galilean’ telescope (Pioneers of science (London, 1893), 95–96). Antonio Favaro tried to maximize Galileo's role in the invention: “… lo storico che volesse rendere giustizia a tutti si perderebbe in un dedalo inestricabile di nomi, ma sarebbe opera partigiana ed ingiusta il disconoscere le benemerenze di colui che con alcuni progressi decisivi ha per così dire sintetizzato il lavoro dei suoi predecessori; e conchiuderemo traducendo il concetto nostro in questo giudizio: Se Gutenberg ha inventata la stampa, certamente Galileo è l'inventore del telescopio” (“La invenzione del telescopio secondo gli ultimi studi” Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, lx, pt 2 (1907), 1–54, p. 54).

Wohwill Emil , Galilei und sein Kampf fuer die copernicanische Lehre (2 vols, Hamburg/Leipzig, 1909–26), i, 228–9; Jebb S. , in Fratris Rogeri Bacon, ordinis minorum, opus maius (London, 1733), ninth page of the unpaginated preface.

Le opere di Galileo Galilei (Edizione Nazionale, Florence, 1890–1909), iii, 60. For a convenient translation see Drake Stillman , Discoveries and opinions of Galileo (New York, 1957), 21–58. Drake translates Belga by Fleming (29). In the early seventeenth century the term Belga referred to the inhabitants of all the Low Countries (i.e., modern Belgium and the Netherlands). Since all the early notices on the telescope refer to the northern Low Countries, the Dutch Republic, it is better to translate the word as Dutchman here.

E.g., Nieuwe geographische onderwysinghe (Franeker, 1614), 15; Institutiones astronomicae et geographicae (Franeker, 1614), 3–4.

Galama Sybrand , Het wijsbegerig onderwijs aan de hogeschool te Franeker, 1585–1811 (Franeker, 1954), 23.

Oeuvres de Descartes publiées par Charles Adam & Paul Tannery (Paris, 1897–1913), vi, 81–82.

E.g., de L'Etoile Pierre , Journal du règne de Henri IV (4 vols, The Hague, 1761), iii, 513–14; Le mercure françois ou la suitte de l'histoire de la paix. Commençant l'an MDCV … & finissant au sacre du … Loys XIII (Paris, 1611), 338v–339v.

Sirtori Girolamo , Telescopium: Sive ars perficiendi (Frankfurt, 1618), 23–30.

Ibid., 23–24.

E.g., Fromondus Libertus , Meteorologicum libri sex (Antwerp, 1627), 112.

Maria Antonius de Rheita Schyrlaeus , Oculus Enoch et Eliae seu radius sidereomysticus (Antwerp, 1645), pt 1, 337.

Borel Pierre , De vero telescopii inventore, cum brevi omnium conspiciliorum historia …. Accessit etiam centuria observationum microscopicarum (The Hague, 1655–56), 34–35.

These depositions were first published by Pierre Borel in Latin, op. cit. (ref. 15), 29–34. In the nineteenth century the originals, as well as the cover letter to Willem Boreel and the original letter from Boreel to the City Fathers, were found in the city archive in Middelburg. In 1940 Middelburg was bombed and the town hall was ruined. The city archives which were housed there were completely destroyed. Several transcriptions of the documents exist, of which the most reliable is in de Waard Cornelis , De uitvinding der verrekijkers (The Hague, 1906), 10–17. All relevant documents of which the originals have been destroyed are cited here from that work.

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 14–17.

Ibid., 18–19.

Borel , op. cit. (ref. 15), 18–41. Although the main title page of this work indicates 1655 as the date of publication, while the separate title page for Borel's ‘century’ of microscopical observations has the date 1656, the entire work was, in fact, published in 1656, as is clear from Christiaan Huygens's De Saturni luna observatio nova, dated March 1656, reprinted here in the first part (Book ii, 62–63).

Girolamo Sirtori perhaps travelled to Middelburg to interview Hans Lipperhey (Telescopium, op. cit. (ref. 11), 23–24).

Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens (The Hague, 1888–1950), xiii, 591–3.

Ibid., 592.

Opuscula postuma (Leiden, 1703), 163; Oeuvres complètes (ref. 21), xiii, 436, 437.

E.g., de la Hire Philipe , “Recherches des dates de l'invention du micrometre des horloges à pendule, & des lunettes d'approche”, Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences. Année MDCCXVII. Avec les memoires de mathematique & de phisique pour la même année (Paris, 1719), memoires, 79–87, pp. 84–85; Montucla Jean-Etienne , Histoire des mathématiques (2 vols, Paris, 1758), ii, 167; second edition (4 vols, Paris, 1799–1802), ii, 232; le François de Lalande Joseph-Jérome , Astronomie (4 vols, Paris, 1771–81), ii, 729; Bailly Jean-Sylvain , Histoire de l'astronomie moderne (3 vols, Paris, 1779–82), ii, 84–85; Delambre Jean-Baptiste Joseph , Histoire de l'astronomie moderne (2 vols, Paris, 1821), i, xix–xx.

E.g., De La Rue Pieter , Geletterd Zeeland (Middelburg, 1734), 299–304.

First printed in Moll Gerard , “Geschiedkundig onderzoek naar de eerste uitvinders der verrekijkers uit de aantekeningen van wijlen den hoogleeraar Van Swinden zamengesteld”, Nieuwe verhandelingen der eerste klasse van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Instituut van wetenschappen, letterkunde en schoone kunsten, iii (1831), 103–209, pp. 129–131. Van Swinden's transcription, followed by de Waard (Uitvinding (ref. 16), 23–24), is in error in several important instances. The only reliable transcription is in Oeuvres complètes (ref. 21), xiii, 591–3. A convenient translation of this document can be found in Singer Charles , “Steps leading to the invention of the first optical apparatus”, Studies in the history and method of science (2 vols, ed. Singer C. , Oxford 1917–21), ii, 385–413, “Appendix to Article x”, 532–4.

The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, mss “Staten-Generaal”, §33, 169^r, 171^r, 178^v, 217^r, 217^v, 219^v; §34, 33^r; §12504, entries of 5 October, 17 October, 15 December 1608, and 13 February 1609.

See ref. 16.

The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, mss “Staten-Generaal”, §33, 169^r.

E.g., de Kanter J. ab Utrecht Dresselhuis J. , De provincie Zeeland (Middelburg, 1824), appendix x, 79–98; Japiske H. , He aandeel van Zacharias Janse in de uitvinding der verrekijkers (Middelburg, 1890).

E.g., Frederiks J. G. , “Johan Lipperhey van Wesel, burger van Middelburg en uitvinder der verrekijkers”, De tijdspiegel (1885), 168–97.

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 30–31.

Moll , “Geschiedkundig onderzoek” (ref. 26).

A German synopsis of the article was written by H. W. M. Olbers and published posthumously, “Ueber den Erfinder der Fernroehre”, Jahrbuch fuer 1834, herausgegeben von H. C. Schumacher (Stuttgart/Tuebingen, 1843), 57–65. Doberck W. reviewed the article in “The inventor of the telescope”, The observatory, ii (1879), 364–70.

Moll Gerard , “On the first invention of telescopes”, Journal of the Royal Institution, i (1831), 319–32, 483–96.

E.g., in England, Grant Robert , History of physical astronomy (London, 1852), 519; in Germany, Wolff Rudolph , Geschichte der Astronomie (Munich, 1877), 358–9, and Servus H. , Die Geschichte des Fernrohrs bis auf die neuste Zeit (Berlin, 1886), 38–42.

Harting Pieter , Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der microscopen in ons vaderland (Utrecht, 1846); idem, Het mikroscoop (3 vols, Utrecht, 1848–50), iii, 22–34, and German translation, Das Microskop (Braunschweig, 1859), 585–95.

De Waard , Uitvinding, op cit. (ref. 16).

Ibid., 115–83.

Ibid., 152–5.

Ibid., 157.

Ibid., 81–104.

Ibid., 91.

Favaro , “La invenzione del telescopio”, op. cit. (ref. 4).

Ronchi Vasco , Galileo e il cannocchiale (Udine, 1942), 132–4.

De Waard , “L'invention du télescope”, Ciel et terre, xxviii (1907), 81–88, 117–24. See especially A. Danjon Couder A. , Lunettes et télescopes (Paris, 1935), 583–604.

E.g., Singer , op. cit. (ref. 26); Bell Louis , The telescope (New York, 1922), 2–7; Doig Peter , A concise history of astronomy (London, 1950), 66–67; Court Thomas H. , The history of the microscope (London, 1932), 7–9.

Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634 publié avec une introduction et des notes par C. de Waard (4 vols, The Hague, 1939–53), iii, 376. In the annotations de Waard does not refer the reader to his own work, but rather to Danjon and Couder, op. cit. (ref. 46).

E.g., King Henry C. , The history of the telescope (London, 1955), 30–32; Charleston R. J. Angus-Butterworth L. M. , “Glass”, A history of technology (5 vols, ed. Singer C. , Oxford, 1954–58), iii, 206–44, p. 231. In both cases the source for the statement is not de Waard's book, but rather Danjon and Couder, op. cit. (ref. 46). Shortly after this time the translation of Anthony Pannekoek's De groei van ons wereldbeeld into English, A history of astronomy (London, 1961), 227, did much to bring de Waard's researches to the attention of English readers.

E.g., Zinner Ernst , Entstehung und ausbreitung der coppernicanischen Lehre (Erlangen, 1943) and Deutsche und niederlaendische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1958). See also Riekher Rolf , Fernrohre und ihre Meister (Berlin, DDR, 1957), 21–22. Emil Wohlwill, however, was familiar with de Waard's book shortly after it was published (op. cit. (ref. 5), i, 224–7).

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 14.

Johannes Kepler gesammelte Werke (Munich, 1938-), iv, 387–9.

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 323.

Ibid., 117–18.

This is especially true for the alleged invention of the microscope by Sacharias Janssen and his father.

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 322.

Ibid., 14.

Ibid., 323.

Ibid., 122–38.

Ibid., 157.

Ibid., 156–60.

Drake Stillman , Galileo studies, personality, tradition, and revolution (Ann Arbor, 1970), 155–6.

Ibid., 155.

The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, mss “Staten-Generaal”, §33, 169^r.

Middelburg, Rijksarchief in Zeeland, mss “Staten van Zeeland”, §480, lxxvii^v, §1633, 32^r-32^v.

The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, mss “Staten-Generaal, §33, 178^v.

Marius Simon , Mundus jovialis (Nuremburg, 1614), preface.

De Waard , Uitvinding (ref. 16), 164–6, 172.

Drake , Galileo studies (ref. 62), 156.

Private correspondence.

della Porta Giovanbaptista , Magia naturalis libri XX (Naples, 1589), 269.

Gualterotti to Galileo, 24 April 1610, in Galileo , Opere (ref. 6), x, 341–2.

Porta , op. cit. (ref. 71), 270.

Porta to Federigo Cesi, 28 August 1609, in Galileo , Opere (ref. 6), x, 252.

Manzini Carlo Antonio , l'Occhiale all'occhio (Bologna, 1660), 98: occhiali di vista commun.

The magnification of a simple telescope is given by the ratio of the focal lengths of the objective and the eyepiece.

Gualterotti to Galileo, see ref. 72.