CiNii 図書 - Smells : a cultural history of odours in early modern times

Why is our sense of smell so under-appreciated? We tend to think of smell as a vestigial remnant of our pre-human past, doomed to gradual extinction, and we go to great lengths to eliminate smells from our environment, suppressing body odour, bad breath and other smells. Living in a relatively odour-free environment has numbed us to the importance that smells have always had in human history and culture. In this major new book Robert Muchembled restores smell to its rightful place as one of our most important senses and examines the transformation of smells in the West from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 19th century. He shows that in earlier centuries, the air in towns and cities was often saturated with nauseating emissions and dangerous pollution. Having little choice but to see and smell faeces and urine on a daily basis, people showed little revulsion; until the 1620s, literature and poetry delighted in excreta which now disgust us. The smell of excrement and body odours were formative aspects of eroticism and sexuality, for the social elite and the popular classes alike. At the same time, medicine explained outbreaks of plague by Satan's poisonous breath corrupting the air. Amber, musk and civet came to be seen as vital bulwarks against the devil's breath: scents were worn like armour against the plague. The disappearance of the plague after 1720 and the sharp decline in fear of the devil meant there was no longer any point in using perfumes to fight the forces of evil, paving the way for the olfactory revolution of the 18th century when softer, sweeter perfumes, often with floral and fruity scents, came into fashion, reflecting new norms of femininity and a gentler vision of nature. This rich cultural history of an under-appreciated sense will be appeal to a wide readership.

Table of Contents Table of illustrations Introduction Chapter one: Our unique sense of smell Is science always objective? A sense of danger, emotions, and delight Chapter 2: A Pervasive stench The foul air of medieval towns Urban cess pits The smell of profit Pollutant trades Countryside smells Chapter three: Joyous matter A scholarly culture of scatology Aromatic blasons Humour in the conte The Way to Succeed Odorous wind Chapter four: Scent of a woman Demonising the smell of women When ladies did not smell of roses At arm's length Guilty women A breath of eroticism The gutter press A literary stink Death and the old woman Demonic pleasure Chapter five: The Devil's breath Venomous vapours Plague-ridden towns Perfume as armour Perfumed rituals Rue, vinegar and tobacco Pomanders Chapter six: Musky scents Fountains of youth Ambergris, musk and civet The perfumed glove trade The eroticism of leather Nothing new under the Sun King? Drawing death's sting The great animal slaughter Chapter seven: Civilising floral essences The perfume revolution Luxuriating in baths of scent Sensual faces Bodily hair care The scent of powder The emperor's perfumer Conclusion Bibliography A note on quotations Principle manuscript sources Primary sources Selected bibliography

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Smells : a cultural history of odours in early modern times

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