ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The 19th-Century Italian Perfumery Status: Which Identity between Pharmacy, Medicine, Chemistry and Cosmetics?

• In Event: Better Living through Chemistry

English Abstract

Although perfumery is now recognised as a distinct category, this has not always been the case. Italian perfumery still operated as a craft at the intersection of pharmacy, health and bodily care until the mid-19th century. Yet, a diverse perfume economy gradually emerged, involving the extraction and trade of raw materials, synthetic production, equipment manufacturing, composition, marketing, packaging and technical knowledge transfer. Despite the well-established French dominance- especially via Grasse- several Italian houses gained regional and even international visibility. This communication, therefore, asks how Italian perfumery evolved from a subcategory to a clearly defined one, and how this shift was conceptualised and contested by contemporary authors.
I aim to reassess the evolution of the Italian perfumery since it occupied an ambiguous epistemic space, sensory and technical, artisanal and scientific, domestic and industrial. This study will thus combine economic, social, cultural, medical, and technical history with heritage studies through diverse sources such as manuals, treaties, professional journals, exhibition reports and material culture.
I will begin by examining the strong historical ties between perfumery, pharmacy and medicine. Then, I will analyse the progressive impact of industrialisation on that sector, and the way in which it reshaped the production, expertise and commercial practices. Finally, I will compare the contemporary authors’ perspectives through a study of various textual sources to highlight convergences, tensions and contested visions on what perfume was and ought to become in the last quarter of the nineteenth-century Italy.

Author

• Charlotte Gaudry, Université Grenoble Alpes