Diagnosis, controversy, and technique The story of the golden tooth (1683)

Presented as a premonitory mirabile by the physician Jacob Horst in 1595, the story of the golden tooth gradually became a philosophical exemplum serving as a warning against the artifices used by religions, and features most famously in Histoire des oracles (1683) by Fontenelle (1657–1757). Odontological literature took a belated interest in the story, despite the making of a probable gold dental crown being a true feat at the end of the sixteenth century.