zacharias janssen
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch spectacle maker from Middelburg, which is the Netherlands. Janssen was associated with the invention of the first optical microscope. Janssen was also credited for inventing the first true compound microscope. Janssen was born in the Hague with the date of birth commonly given as 1580 although some sources place it as late as 1588. His parents were known as Hans Martens, who was a peddler, as well as Maeyken Meertens, both probably from Antwerp, Belgium. He grew up with his sister Sara in Middelberg, at the time the second most important city of the Netherlands. Following the death of Janssen's first wife in 1624, he married Anna Couget, we was also from Antwerp.