when was the microscope invented

The microscope was invented in the early 1590s by Dutch spectacle makers Zacharias Janssen and his father Hans Martens. They created one of the first compound microscopes by placing several lenses inside a tube, enabling magnification of objects. Although the image quality was rough compared to modern standards, this was a seminal advance. The invention is dated to around 1590 based on historical accounts, including a letter from a friend of the Janssens describing the device. Later developments were made by scientists such as Galileo Galilei, who improved the microscope around 1609, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 1660s, who ground his own lenses to achieve magnifications up to 270 times and opened the microscopic world to detailed observation. Robert Hooke also contributed significantly to microscopy with his compound microscope and the publication of "Micrographia" in 1665, where he coined the term "cells" for cork tissue structures. In summary, the microscope was invented around 1590 by Zacharias Janssen and his father, with important improvements and observations following in the 17th century by Leeuwenhoek, Hooke, and Galileo.