Incus Berengario da Carpi in his "Commentaria super anatomia Mundini" (1521). Andreas Vesalius, in his "De humani corporis fabrica", was the first to compare the second element of the ossicles to an anvil, thereby giving it the name "incus". The final part of the long limb was once described as a "fourth ossicle" by Pieter Paaw in 1615. Incus The incus or anvil is a bone in the middle ear. The anvil-shaped small bone is one of three ossicles in the middle ear. The "incus" receives vibrations from the malleus, to which it is connected laterally, and transmits these to the
Anvil known as the face. It is generally made of hardened steel and should be flat and smooth with rounded edges for most work. Any marks on the face will be transferred to the work. Also, sharp edges tend to cut into the metal being worked and may cause cracks to form in the workpiece. The face is hardened and tempered to resist the blows of the smith's hammer, so the anvil face does not deform under repeated use. A hard anvil face also reduces the amount of force lost in each hammer blow. Hammers, tools, and work pieces of hardened