Scientists

Hans Lippershey

Citation Formats

General Reference

Science Atlas. "Hans Lippershey." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://science.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/hans-lippershey.

APA Style

Science Atlas. (n.d.). Hans Lippershey. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://science.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/hans-lippershey

BibTeX

@misc{scienceatlas-hans-lippershey,
  author = {Science Atlas},
  title = {Hans Lippershey},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://science.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/hans-lippershey},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Hans Lippershey was a German-born Dutch spectacle maker credited with filing the first patent application for a refracting telescope, in 1608.

Facts

Birth Year

1570 1

Britannica gives Lippershey's birth as circa 1570; his exact birth date and year are not firmly recorded.

Field

Optics and instrument making 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Invented

Microscope

Why this is disputed. One of three Dutch spectacle makers, alongside Hans and Zacharias Janssen, traditionally credited with the compound microscope around 1590; the attribution rests on 1655 testimony given decades after the fact and is treated by historians as unreliable.

Source Microscope (Britannica)

Telescope

Applied for the first known telescope patent on 2 October 1608, calling the instrument a kijker; the States General denied a patent as too easily copied but granted him 900 florins.

Source Hans Lippershey (Britannica)