The history of the figure of the perfumer from the Renaissance onwards

Versailles Colloquium of October 2021 on the place of the Perfumer

Perfumery has a rich and complex history, dating back to ancient times.

Ever since it was first recognised, the profession of perfumer has undergone metamorphoses, and perfumers have had to adapt to changing practices while at the same time distinguishing themselves from their competitors.

Building on previous research, a symposium on the history of the perfumer since the Renaissance was held at the Château de Versailles in October 2021.

This symposium offered a multidisciplinary approach to the history of the perfumer, his profession, his social status and his representations, through the contributions of specialists from a variety of backgrounds: historians, art historians, literary scholars, philosophers, perfumers and players in the contemporary world of perfumery. The research also sought to understand the individual at the heart of his time, analyzing how perfumery emerged from the Renaissance in Italy and developed from the 17th century onwards in France and England, in order to shed light on the links between the perfumer’s craft and the socio-cultural environment of his time.

This international colloquium organized by Alice Camus Mignen and Érika Wicky is available for replay on request here.

In 2024, the Per Fumum Endowment Fund renewed its support, with Alice Camus and Erika Wicky, for the publication of the proceedings of this symposium. The project consists of a book that will bring together twelve works analyzing different aspects of the profession of perfumer in order to grasp the evolution of this figure since its creation during the Renaissance. By highlighting the creativity of contemporary perfumer-designers and underlining the importance of exchanges between past and present, this project also aims to build a rich and nuanced history of perfumery and its activity.

Alice CAMUS MIGNEN

After several years of research specializing in court society under the Ancien Régime, as a research associate at the Château de Versailles Research Centre, Alice Camus Mignen will be defending her doctoral thesis in 2021 on perfumers and the French court from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Since then, she has been helping to promote the history and heritage of perfumery as a consulting historian for companies, individuals and local authorities.

Érika WICKY

Érika Wicky has a doctorate in art history and her research focuses on the history of olfactory culture from the 18th century to the present day. She is particularly interested in the relationship between the arts and olfaction, and in the history of scientific and craft knowledge acquired through olfaction. She has published widely on these subjects and organized several international conferences, including Mediality of Smells (Oxford, 2018), the proceedings of which have just been published (Peter Lang, 2022).