Early advances on rays and refraction: a review through selected illustrations

Our acquaintance with rays and refraction is based on previous work carried out by scientists, practitioners, artisans, and optics users. Here a selection of illustrations from ancient books and documents is presented, testifying to the substantive development that took place at the turn of 1600. Achievements at the roots of our continuing advances in optical sciences are acknowledged. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)