The earliest recorded comment on lenses for vision came from Roger Bacon in 1268, but the first glasses were made in central Italy, most likely Pisa or Florence, by about 1290. A Dominican friar wrote in 1306 that the art had been discovered less than twenty years earlier. Venice became a major centre thanks to high-quality glass from Murano, and it had guild rules for spectacle sales by 1301. Early glasses were convex, correcting farsightedness and the presbyopia that comes with ageing. Concave lenses for nearsightedness appeared in the mid-15th century, and Johannes Kepler published the first correct explanation of how both types work in 1604. Strasbourg opened what is considered the first specialist spectacle shop in 1466.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.