Note 380 — Chapter XI · THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

In a chapter entitled “Of the Excellence and Nobility of the Barber’s Office,” Cintio d’Amato speaks of several barbers of that period, who were in great repute by their writings, or by the high offices with which they were invested, or by honors received from princes and sovereigns. Among the writers, Tiberio Malfi, barber of Montesarchio, deserves mention; he published, in 1626, a book entitled The Barber, written in excellent style, and giving proof of solid literary culture, and of much erudition. This work treats of all that concerns the barber’s art (decorative medicine, bleeding, etc.). In it, however, there is absolutely nothing about the treatment of the teeth or their extraction; and this constitutes a valid confirmation of our own opinion, that is, that the dental art was not at that time in any way in the hands of the barbers.