Bill on 24 Dec 2013  •  Link

In the Beginning of the present 17th Century, Metius, a Spectacle-maker in Holland, light upon a Composition of a Convex, with a concave Glass set at due Distance in a Tube, which made a perspective Glass to see Objects at a Distance. And Galileo, in Italy, whether excited by a Hint thence received, or from Baptista Porta, or by his own good Genius, is uncertain, did the same thing at Florence.
---Philosophical Experiments and Observations of the Late Dr. Robert Hooke. W. Derham, 1726.

When I had thus prepar'd my self, I took my Perspective Glass, and went up to the Side of the Hill, to see what I could discover; and I found quickly, by my Glass, that there were one and twenty Savages, three prisoners, and three Canoes.
---The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe, 1719.

Terry Foreman on 3 Jun 2016  •  Link

A comparable passage from Pepys:

I did entertain myself with my perspective glass up and down the church, by which I had the great pleasure of seeing and gazing at a great many very fine women; http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Pepys seems to describe a kind of early [pocket]-telescope.. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pe…