The origins of the telescope - DWC - KNAW

Ill. 7. The ‘Nieuwe Kerk’ in Middelburg. In 1608 the spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey
lived in the house depicted at the far right on this engraving. Around the corner – built
against the left side wall of the church, near the ‘Mint Gate’ – the house can be seen
which at that time was occupied by the young Zacharias Jansen. Engraving by Th.
Koning from Zeelands Chronyk Almanach(1779). [Zelandia Illustrata, Zeeuws Archief,
Middelburg].
sorts of new details had emerged concerning Hans Lipperhey. Also, only the
1608-patent applications by Lipperhey and Metius were found, a very inconvenient
result for the Zeelanders, as everyone knew that Lipperhey was born
in Wesel, at that time considered to be a German city. The facts about Metius
of Alkmaar were equally displeasing because Middelburg, the capital of the
province of Zeeland, could not be the location of a statue erected for ‘foreigners,’
born in Wesel or Alkmaar.
Even worse were the findings of Serlé. He discovered that Zacharias Jansen
was born in 1585, a fact which made it virtually impossible that Jansen could
have made a major invention at the age of five! Besides, whereas Lipperhey
was mentioned as a spectacle maker in various documents beginning in 1602,
Jansen was mentioned only in 1615 as the guardian of the two children of the
Middelburg spectacle maker ‘Lowys Lowyssen, geseyt Henricxen brilmakers.’
The only comforting discovery was the fact that Jansen and Lipperhey had
been close neighbours (ill. 7).
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huib j. zuidervaart