Alessandro della Spina (born 13th century-died 1313) was a Dominican friar, credited with the invention of spectacles.
Spina was a Dominican friar, in the second half of the 13th century, at the monastery of the Church of Santa Caterina, Pisa.
This chronicle portrays him as a modest, intelligent, and mechanically versed copyist and illuminator, "capable of remaking anything he saw".
He did not have access to the Chronica antiqua manuscript, but relied on a transcription by his friend Francesco Redi, who had altered the text by modifying or omitting phrases.
When Dati died in 1676, Redi published a letter on Spina's invention of spectacles, falsifying both the Chronica antiqua and Jordan's sermon.