Alice Camus Mignen on the publication of the proceedings of Colloque 2021 on the figure of the perfumer, from the Renaissance to the present day.
Alice Camus Mignen, you are a researcher with a doctorate in history. With Érika Wicky (LARHRA researcher), you are working on the publication of the proceedings of the October 2021 Colloquium on the figure of the perfumer. This book will bring together twelve works analyzing different aspects of the perfumer’s craft, in order to grasp the evolution of this figure since its creation during the Renaissance.
Per Fumum Endowment Fund: What are your motivations for publishing the book drawn from the proceedings of the symposium on the evolution of the figure of the perfumer held on October 14 and 15, 2021?
Alice Camus Mignen : « The main objective is to perpetuate everything that was said at the symposium. It was a two-day event and, of course, anyone who wasn’t able to attend won’t be able to access all the presentations if there’s no edition. So sustainability is the main objective. We also want to improve the content. The book will offer an enriched version of the presentations, incorporating the exchanges that took place during the colloquium as well as subsequent discussions between the authors, Erika and myself. We have asked them to clarify certain points and unify their contributions. The texts in the book are not exact copies of the contributions, but supplemented versions. The aim is to perpetuate this knowledge and make it a permanent part of research. By preserving this memory, we hope that, years from now, it will be possible to return to the book to see what was said. We hope that this trace will be useful to researchers, scientists and, of course, the wider public interested in this subject. »
Per Fumum EF : How did you select the work? What criteria did you use?
A.CM : « First of all, there was an initial selection by a scientific committee for the organization of the colloquium itself. It was made up of seven people, in addition to Érika and myself. We called on this committee to select the presentations. This was done in accordance with what interested us in relation to the general subject of these two days, and according to the scientific seriousness of the proposals. Then, at the end of the symposium, there were a few papers that we didn’t keep. Some for very pragmatic reasons. For example, I know that one author informed us that, in the meantime, he had published elsewhere. Others were eliminated because we felt that the text was not scientifically sound, not sufficiently sourced or not well argued. The scientific criterion was our main guide. The intervention had to be innovative in terms of its contribution to the state of research, and it had to be argued and scientifically sound. »
Per Fumum EF : What are the main themes of the book?
A.CM : « The book is structured chronologically in four main sections, from the Renaissance to the present day. Within these sections, several main themes are recurrently addressed. The major theme is obviously the evolution of the perfumer from the Renaissance to the present day. This includes the evolution of the profession, and its changing links with other professions over the centuries. For example, perfumers maintained more or less close relationships with apothecaries, chemists and botanists, and these ties contributed to the autonomy and independence of their profession. Then there are more specific and sometimes sulphurous themes. We look at the links between perfumes and poisons, especially in the 16th century. There’s also an article on the relationship between perfumery and prostitution, particularly in the 19th century. However, the main focus remains the evolution of the perfumer’s profession and how we arrived at today’s highly constructed and clearly defined identity of the contemporary perfumer. »
Per Fumum EF : How do you think this book will help us understand the evolution of the perfumer since its creation during the Renaissance?
A.CM : « First of all, I think its main interest lies in the fact that it’s the first book to focus specifically on the figure of the perfumer. Until now, there have been books dealing with perfumery and fragrances, but not directly with the perfumer. So that’s the novelty of this book in itself. What’s also interesting is that we’ve tried to capture this figure in all his facets, to get as rich a portrait of the perfumer as possible.
The other important original feature is that we have included two interviews with current perfumers. This is a major innovation in this type of book. We wanted to bring together specialists in the field – historians, art historians, literary scholars – and contemporary perfumers. The idea was to create a dialogue between researchers and representatives of the profession today, to show that research and the profession are not two separate worlds, but that there is a living link between the past and the present.
I think that’s what makes this book so interesting, not only for researchers, but also for the general public. It makes it concrete, relevant to today’s society, and accessible to all. »
Per Fumum EF : What are the main stages in the creation of a work such as this?
A.CM : « There are many reasons for this. Firstly, we had to collect the texts, which took time because each researcher has his or her own activities. After a conference, it can sometimes take a long time to retrieve the texts of the presentations. Then there were numerous exchanges with the authors to make certain modifications or clarifications.
Then there was the work of restructuring the plan of the book. For practical reasons, it doesn’t fit in with the conference schedule. At a conference, you have to respect breaks and group speakers by theme, whereas for a book, you have more freedom to organize things. So we had to work on structuring the plan.
Next, we had to choose the publishers we were interested in. We chose Presses Universitaires de Rennes mainly for their scientific credentials. We submitted the manuscript and received positive feedback, albeit with a few changes to be made. This led to further exchanges with the authors to adjust their texts. There was also some translation work, as we had four texts in English. The publisher asked us to translate these texts to make the book more accessible to the French-speaking public. Another important aspect was the iconographic work. The publisher allowed us to include a number of images, which added an interesting visual dimension to the book. We then had to select and integrate these images.
Then there was the layout work. As the publisher wasn’t involved, this was the responsibility of the book’s editors, Érika and myself. We had to bring the text up to typographical standards and ensure that the footnotes and texts sent by each author were consistent.
Once all that was done, we sent the finalized manuscript back to the publisher. At present, only one text remains to be translated, so the manuscript is almost complete. It’s quite a time-consuming job, but essential to guarantee the quality and coherence of the book. »
Per Fumum EF : How long will it take to complete a project of this scale?
A.CM : « The first stage, if we consider that to be when the colloquium took place, was in October 2021. I believe that about two months after the colloquium, we contacted the speakers again to tell them that we were going to publish a book and ask them to send in their texts. We gave them a deadline, which was June 2022, to send us their texts. Some people met this deadline, others took longer.
Then all the editing and layout work began. Érika and I really started working on the book at the beginning of 2022. So, we’ve been working on this project for about two and a half years. The book will be around 300 pages long, depending on our publisher’s format.
For the iconography, Érika and I took care of everything. The authors sent us their images, but it was our responsibility to check their quality. We also had to do all the annotation work to clarify the rights of the images. For example, when an author mentions a painting, he or she doesn’t always provide all the necessary information, such as provenance, dimensions, etc. We had to search for this information for ourselves. We had to search for this information to comply with our publisher’s standards. This work was very tedious, but essential for the quality of the book. »
Find out more about the publication of the proceedings of the symposium on the figure of the perfumer here. Keep up to date with the project at www.fondsperfumum.org.
