Boxwood pelican, c. 1600
On application
Boxwood pelican of c. 1600. Historians of medical instrumentation are often asked about the dental pelican. It was the resemblance to the bird’s beak tip, which is remarkably well adapted to gripping, that gave the dental instrument its name. It is said that it was the Paduan Fabrice d’Acquapendente (15371619) who described the instrument’s resemblance to the curious beak of the eponymous bird (1542), but before him, it can be said that in his Chirurgie Magna (1363) Guy de Chauliac (1300-1368) described the instrument without naming it: ‘They may be pincers similar to those used to bind bars….’ (‘Ce peuvent estre des tenailles semblables à celles desquelles on relieves barrels …’).
Length: 12 cm.
