A TREATISE ON OPTICS BY BOLANTIO,GIOVANNI,CHRISTOFORO

Few accounts have survived detailing the techniques employed for the p roduction of optical glass for astronomical and microscopical instrume nts during the seventeenth century in Italy; the period during which t he art was being developed in the shops of Eustachio Divini and Giusep pe Campani, and other optical instrument-makers. Indeed, few of the to ols of the lens-makers have been described in any detail, and few if a ny have survived. Consequently, the discovery of a hitherto apparently unknown Italian treatise, or what appears to have been notes for a sh op manual of the period, is a contribution to present knowledge of len s-making technology even though the identity and region of the author remain unknown.