Research Catalog

Title

Smells : a cultural history of odours in early modern times / Robert Muchembled ; translated by Susan Pickford.

Author

Muchembled, Robert, 1944-

Publication

• Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, [2020]
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Pickford, Susan

Description

x, 216 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• "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." -- Back cover.
• "A rich cultural history of smells that sheds new light on an under-appreciated sense"--

Uniform Title

Civilisation des odeurs (XVIe-début XIXe siècle). English

Alternative Title

Civilisation des odeurs (XVIe-début XIXe siècle).

Subjects

• Smell > Social aspects
• Odors > Social aspects
• History
• Civilization, Modern
• Civilization
• Europe > Civilization
• Smell > Social aspects > Europe > History
• Odors > Social aspects > Europe > History

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• First published in French as La civilisation des odeurs (XVIe - début XIXe siècle) ©2017--t.p. verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-198) and index.

Contents

1. Our unique sense of smell -- Is science always objective? -- A sense of danger, emotions, and delight -- 2. A Pervasive stench -- The foul air of medieval towns -- Urban cesspits -- The smell of profit -- Pollutant trades -- Countryside smells -- 3. Joyous matter -- A scholarly culture of scatology -- Aromatic blasons -- Humour in the conte -- The Way to Succeed -- Odorous wind -- 4. 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 -- 5. The Devil's breath -- Venomous vapours -- Plague-ridden towns -- Perfume as armour -- Perfumed rituals -- Rue, vinegar and tobacco -- Pomanders -- 6. 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 -- 7. Civilising floral essences -- The perfume revolution -- Luxuriating in baths of scent -- Sensual faces -- Bodily hair care -- The scent of powder -- The emperor's perfumer

Call Number

JFE 21-5408

ISBN

• 9781509536771
• 1509536779
• 9781509536788
• 1509536787

LCCN

• 2019045567
• 40030365781

OCLC

1123237355

Author

Muchembled, Robert, 1944- author.

Title

Smells : a cultural history of odours in early modern times / Robert Muchembled ; translated by Susan Pickford.

Publisher

Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, [2020]

Copyright Date

©2020

Edition

English edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-198) and index.

Added Author

Pickford, Susan, translator.

Other Form:

Online version: Muchembled, Robert, Smells Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. 9781509536795 (DLC) 2019045568

Other Standard Identifier

40030365781

Research Call Number

JFE 21-5408