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First edition. LENSES, SPECTACLES, TELESCOPES AND MICROSCOPES. First and only edition of this important work on the making of lenses, spectacles, telescopes and microscopes, "the most comprehensive book on the subject" (Ilardi, p. 229). "Seventeenth-century account of dioptrics, dealing with light, refraction, the eye, vision, the invention of spectacles, the making of spectacles and telescopes. The book, which is essentially practical, aims at showing the optical worker how lenses are ground and how they may be used both to remedy visual defects and also for telescopes. The dedication . is to Saint Lucia, the patron saint of the blind and those with diseased eyes" (British Optical Association Catalogue). "An important work in the history of optics, valuable as one of the earliest detailed accounts of methods of grinding and polishing lenses. A large number of fine woodcuts illustrate the machinery and processes described by the author" (Becker Catalogue). The first chapter contains an account of the invention of the telescope, and of Galileo's role in it, and also of the invention of spectacles. The following three chapters deal respectively with optics, the anatomy of the eye, and the mechanics of vision. The remaining ca. 200 pages are devoted to the manufacture of lenses, with extensive discussion of the different kinds of lenses required for various purposes, and the different methods of their design and manufacture. There are descriptions of the Murano glassworks, opticians' tables for the precise measurement of lenses, and illustrations of a lens grinder, glass-cutting shears, lathes and several optical instruments. The full-page portrait of Eustachio Divini, aged 49 years, bears an inscription stating that he is judged by scientists of optics to be the first to have fabricated large telescopes (occhialoni). As several of Divini's works are addressed to Manzini it is reasonable to suppose that this work documents in part Divini's discoveries. This is an unpressed copy on thick paper, bound in contemporary vellum, and with manuscript corrections in Manzini's hand - see, for example, the copy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which has the same corrections in the same hand as our copy. Born of the Bolognese nobility, "Manzini established his own astronomical observatory on the grounds of his estates around Bologna and made his own telescopes, grinding the lenses for them himself . Manzini's [book] was both a theoretical and practical compendium of what was known on optics and on the art of spectacle making from the fusion of glass and crystal to the fitting of glasses for various refractive errors and the insertion of precision lenses in telescopes and microscopes . "In his preface, Manzini expressed his consternation in seeing the art of spectacle making being passed orally from one generation to the other without written instructions and often in strict secrecy so that much valuable information was lost forever. His book was designed to serve as a guide both in theoretical optics as developed by medieval authorities such as Alhacen (965-1040), Witelo (ca. 1230-80), [Roger] Bacon (1214/20-92) and by writers closer to his age such as Johannes Hevelius (1611-87), [Francesco] Maurolico (1494-1575), [Giambattista] della Porta (1535-1615), Christoph Scheiner (1573-1650), [Johannes] Kepler (1571-1630), Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) and [René] Descartes (1596-1650) among others, and in the actual shop practices followed by leading makers of scientific instruments, some of which he had helped to develop. He revealed that he had learned the first rudiments of hand-polishing lenses from a former mirror maker in Venice, Domenico Rambottino, a man without any education (huomo idiota affato) but very skilled in polishing lenses for telescopes, which he supplied throughout Italy and the New World (New Indies) (pp. 238-9). He received additional theoretical and practical instruction from some celebrated instrument makers of the age such as Francesco Fontana (1580-ca. 1656) in Naples, who brought the art to such a degree of perfection that he could rightly boast to be the most "sharp-eyes man from the creation of the universe to his time" (Preface). He reserved the highest praise for Eustachio Divini (1610-85) in Rome who rose above all others in the practice of this art, which can now be called "divine" (an allusion to his last name) because of his accomplishments (Preface). Even great Princes in Italy and elsewhere, he claimed, have not disdained to use their hands in this art through which men can now scan the skies and the stars and contemplate God's creation. And, he observed, "there are few in the world that would not need the benefits of this art before dying" (Preface). There could hardly be a more enthusiastic and eloquent celebration of the usefulness, dignity, nobility, and even "divine" function of the relatively new profession of optical scientist and practitioner. "The preface also emphasized the practical aspects of the art. Although Manzini distilled optical theory in his chapters on light and refraction for the benefit of those more skilled in mathematics, he advised other readers that these sections could safely be skipped, because they were not necessary to become "a perfect master" (maestro). They were advised instead to imitate Divini's career, whose portrait graces the frontispiece of his book. Divini, according to Manzini, had relied more on experience, ingenuity, and good judgment than on books to achieve his astounding results in making the best lenses and telescopes in Europe. He was, indeed, credited by his colleagues to be the "first to have perfected the making of telescopes" [Preface]. "Manzini's detailed and extensive description of lens grinding and polishing surpassed by far earlier treatments, including those published by Della Porta in his Magia naturalis (1589) and by Giovanni Sirtori in his Telescopium (1618). His exposition is based on these and other writings and above.