Over the course of the eighteenth century, perfumery took shape as an art with multiple facets, positioned at the crossroads of science, aesthetics, and daily ritual. The use of fragrances was not merely a matter of olfactory ornamentation, but constituted a symbolic and sensorial system of extraordinary complexity. Perfuming oneself was not an isolated gesture, but rather an integral part of a daily ceremonial that combined hygiene, social representation, seduction, and introspection. Every selected essence, every elaborated formula, every gesture performed with the aid of scented waters, ointments, powders, or spirits contributed to a mute and refined language, through which were expressed one’s rank, health status, aesthetic sensitivity, and cultural background.

This olfactory heritage, as attested by numerous treatises and manuals of French, Italian, English, and German origin, was articulated through a multitude of preparations, each with a specific intended use.

The analytical comparison between these typologies is made possible by the comparative study of original sources: from the famous “Manuels de Parfumerie” published in France to the Italian recipe books, or the manuscript collections preserved in the noble archives of Northern Italy; from the Anglo-Saxon works of the late century to the herbalist and chemical-practical treatises circulated within the Austro-German area, bearing witness to the intersection between Galenism, empiricism, and refined craftsmanship. These texts, read through a comparative lens, reveal not only the diversity of approaches and ingredients, but also the territorial specificities in the very conception of perfume: at times a medicine, at times an ornament; at times a means of spiritual elevation, at times an instrument of civility and courtesy.

My work is founded on years of research, experimentation, and engagement with these historical sources, always approached with philological rigor and reconstructive sensitivity. Each formula aims not merely to replicate a recipe, but to recreate its original intent, its context of use, its cultural and symbolic impact. Through these gestures, perfumery became an extension of the individual and an emanation of their world: refined, codified, profound.

This collection thus intends to offer an olfactory experience that is both experiential and cognitive: each fragrance becomes a fragment of history, an invitation to slow down, to re-educate the senses, to rediscover the pleasure of a time when even the simplest daily gesture embodied the elegance of a lost world.