writers on optics is the Alexandrian Ptolemy (2nd century).
His writings on light are believed to be preserved in two imperfect
Latin manuscripts, themselves translations from the Arabic.
The subjects discussed include the nature of light and colour;
the formation of images by various types of mirrors, refractions
at the surface of glass and of water, with tables of the angle
of refraction corresponding to given angles of incidence for rays
passing from air to glass and from air to water; and also astronomical
refractions, i.e. the apparent displacement of a heavenly
body due to the refraction of light in its passage through the
atmosphere. The authenticity of these manuscripts has been
contested: the Almagest contains no mention of the Optics,
nor is the subject of astronomical refractions noticed, but the
strongest objection, according to A. de Morgan, is the fact that
their author was a poor geometer.
§ 4. One of the results of the decadence of the Roman empire was the suppression of the academies, and few additions were made to scientific knowledge on European soil until the 13th century. Extinguished in the West, the spirit of research was kindled in the East. The accession of the Arabs to power and territory in the 7th century was followed by the acquisition of the literary stores of Greece, and during the following five centuries the Arabs, both by their preservation of existing works and by their original discoveries (which, however, were but few), took a permanent place in the history of science. Pre-eminent among Arabian scientists is Alhazen, who flourished in the 11th century. Primarily a mathematician and astronomer, he also investigated a wide range of optical phenomena. He examined the anatomy of the eye, and the functions of its several parts in promoting vision; and explained how it is that we see one object with two eyes, and then not by a single ray or beam as had been previously held, but by two cones of rays proceeding from the object, one to each eye. He attributed vision to emanations from the body seen; and on his authority the Platonic theory fell into disrepute. He also discussed the magnifying powers of lenses; and it may be that his writings on this subject inspired the subsequent invention of spectacles. Astronomical observations led to the investigation of refraction by the atmosphere, in particular, astronomical refraction; he explained the phenomenon of twilight, and showed a connexion between its duration and the height of the atmosphere. He also treated optical deceptions, both in direct vision and in vision by reflected and refracted light, including the phenomenon known as the horizontal moon, i.e. the apparent increase in the diameter of the sun or moon when near the horizon. This appearance had been explained by Ptolemy on the supposition that the diameter was actually increased by refraction, and his commentator Theon endeavoured to explain why an object appears larger when viewed under water. But actual experiment showed that the diameter did not increase. Alhazen gave the correct explanation, which, however, Friar Bacon attributes to Ptolemy. We judge of distance by comparing the angle under which an object is seen with its supposed distance, so that if two objects be seen under nearly equal angles and one be supposed to be more distant than the other, then the former will be supposed to be the larger. When near the horizon the sun or moon, conceived as very distant, are intuitively compared with terrestrial objects, and therefore they appear larger than when viewed at elevations.
§ 5. While the Arabs were acting as the custodians of scientific knowledge, the institutions and civilizations of Europe were gradually crystallizing. Attacked by the Mongols and by the Crusaders, the Bagdad caliphate disappeared in the 13th century. At that period the Arabic commentaries, which had already been brought to Europe, were beginning to exert great influence on scientific thought; and it is probable that their rarity and the increasing demand for the originals and translations led to those forgeries which are of frequent occurrence in the literature of the middle ages. The first treatise on optics written in Europe was admitted by its author Vitello or Vitellio, a native of Poland, to be based on the works of Ptolemy and Alhazen. It was written in about 1270, and first published in 1572, with a Latin translation of Alhazen’s treatise, by F. Risner, under the title Thesaurus opticae. Its tables of refraction are more accurate than Ptolemy’s; the author follows Alhazen in his investigation of lenses, but his determinations of the foci and magnifying powers of spheres are inaccurate. He attributed the twinkling of stars to refraction by moving air, and observed that the scintillation was increased by viewing through water in gentle motion; he also recognized that both reflection and refraction were instrumental in producing the rainbow, but he gave no explanation of the colours.
The Perspectiva Communis of John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, being no more than a collection of elementary propositions containing nothing new, we have next to consider the voluminous works of Vitellio’s illustrious contemporary, Roger Bacon. His writings on light, Perspectiva and Specula mathematica, are included in his Opus majus. It is conceivable that he was acquainted with the nature of the images formed by light traversing a small orifice—a phenomenon noticed by Aristotle, and applied at a later date to the construction of the camera obscura. The invention of the magic lantern has been ascribed to Bacon, and his statements concerning spectacles, the telescope, and the microscope, if not based on an experimental realization of these instruments, must be regarded as masterly conceptions of the applications of lenses. As to the nature of light, Bacon adhered to the theory that objects are rendered visible by emanations from the eye.
The history of science, and more particularly the history of inventions, constantly confronts us with the problem presented by such writings as Friar Bacon’s. Rarely has it been given to one man to promote an entirely new theory or to devise an original instrument; it is more generally the case that, in the evolution of a single idea, there comes some stage which arrests our attention, and to which we assign the dignity of an “invention.” Furthermore, the obscurity that surrounds the early history of spectacles, the magic lantern, the telescope and the microscope, may find a partial solution in the spirit of the middle ages. The natural philosopher who was bold enough to present to a prince a pair of spectacles or a telescope would be in imminent danger of being regarded in the eyes of the church as a powerful and dangerous magician; and it is conceivable that the maker of such an instrument would jealously guard the secret of its actual construction, however much he might advertise its potentialities.[1]
§ 6. The awakening of Europe, which first manifested itself in Italy, England and France, was followed in the 16th century by a period of increasing intellectual activity. The need for experimental inquiry was realized, and a tendency to dispute the dogmatism of the church and to question the theories of the established schools of philosophy became apparent. In the science of optics, Italy led the van, the foremost pioneers being Franciscus Maurolycus (1494–1575) of Messina, and Giambattista della Porta (1538–1615) of Naples. A treatise by Maurolycus entitled Photismi de Lumine et Umbra prospectivum radiorum incidentium facientes (1575), contains a discussion of the measurement of the intensity of light—an early essay in photometry; the formation of circular patches of light by small holes of any shape, with a correct explanation of the phenomenon; and the optical relations of the parts of the eye, maintaining that the crystalline humour acts as a lens which focuses images on the retina, explaining short- and long-sight (myopia and hyper-metropia), with the suggestion that the former may be corrected by concave, and the latter by convex, lenses. He observed the spherical aberration due to elements beyond the axis of a lens, and also the caustics of refraction (diacaustics) by a sphere (seen as the bright boundaries of the luminous patches formed by receiving the transmitted light on a screen), which he correctly
- ↑ It seems probable that spectacles were in use towards the end of the 13th century. The Italian dictionary of the Accademici della Crusca (1612) mentions a sermon of Jordan de Rivalto, published in 1305, which refers to the invention as “not twenty years since”; and Muschenbroek states that the tomb of Salvinus Armatus, a Florentine nobleman who died in 1317, bears an inscription assigning the invention to him. (See the articles Telescope and Camera Obscura for the history of these instruments.)
