# The history of perfume: from ancient Egypt to the niche era The history of perfume, told through the texts that recorded it (Theophrastus, Pliny, Piesse, Huysmans, Proust) and then era by era, from Egypt and distillation to Grasse, synthetics and niche. By [Victoria Frolova](https://10ml.com/authors/victoria-frolova) · 22 October 2026 · 15 min read The history of perfume runs from burnt resins and scented oils in Egypt and Mesopotamia, through Greek and Roman perfume oils and distillation in the Islamic world, to Grasse, Eau de Cologne, the first synthetic materials of the 19th century and the niche houses of recent decades. Much of the story comes down to us through a handful of texts, so this guide reads those first (Theophrastus, Pliny, Septimus Piesse, Huysmans and Proust) and then walks through the eras. Where a date or a "first" is disputed, we say who claims it. ## The history of perfume at a glance **Perfume history in twelve dates** | When | What happened | | --- | --- | | About 1200 BC | A cuneiform tablet names a perfumer called Tapputi at Assur | | c. 371 to c. 287 BC | Theophrastus lives; his treatise on odours dates from his lifetime | | AD 77 to 79 | Pliny writes his chapters on unguents | | c. 801 to 873 | Al-Kindi lives; a book of perfume recipes and distillations is attributed to him | | 1709 | Farina's firm dates its Eau de Cologne to this year | | 1855 | Piesse publishes *The Art of Perfumery* | | 1868 | Coumarin is first made in a laboratory | | 1889 | Aimé Guerlain creates Jicky | | 1921 | Chanel No. 5 is launched | | 1966 | Eau Sauvage is the first commercially successful perfume to use Hedione | | 1992 | Angel, often called the first modern gourmand perfume | | 2000 | Frederic Malle opens his house and Serge Lutens launches his brand | ## Perfumes that carry each chapter forward Ten perfumes, in the order the guide tells the story, from a cologne to a single molecule. | # | Perfume | Main notes | 3 ml | 10 ml | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | [Acqua di Parma Colonia](https://10ml.com/perfumes/acqua-di-parma-colonia) | Citrus, neroli, lavender and rosemary over rose and verbena, closing on sandalwood and musk: the cologne tradition. | €7.56 (€2.52/ml) | €20.07 (€2.01/ml) | | 2 | [Guerlain Shalimar Eau de Parfum](https://10ml.com/perfumes/guerlain-shalimar-eau-de-parfum) | Bergamot and lemon open into jasmine, iris and rose, then vanilla, incense, leather and tonka bean. | €8.10 (€2.70/ml) | €23.13 (€2.31/ml) | | 3 | [Guerlain Vétiver](https://10ml.com/perfumes/guerlain-vetiver) | Bergamot and grapefruit over nutmeg, pepper, tobacco and vetiver, with sandalwood and tonka bean beneath. | €11.16 (€3.72/ml) | €35.01 (€3.50/ml) | | 4 | [Dior Eau Sauvage](https://10ml.com/perfumes/dior-eau-sauvage) | Bergamot, lemon and basil open into Hedione, jasmine, rose and lavender, then oakmoss and vetiver. | €7.83 (€2.61/ml) | €22.86 (€2.29/ml) | | 5 | [Mugler Angel](https://10ml.com/perfumes/mugler-angel) | Cotton candy and bergamot over honey and red berries, then patchouli, chocolate, caramel and vanilla: the gourmand. | €8.37 (€2.79/ml) | €25.74 (€2.57/ml) | | 6 | [Diptyque Philosykos](https://10ml.com/perfumes/diptyque-philosykos) | Fig and fig leaf over green notes, coconut and fig tree sap, finishing on cedar and fig tree wood. | €12.51 (€4.17/ml) | €37.26 (€3.73/ml) | | 7 | [Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower](https://10ml.com/perfumes/frederic-malle-carnal-flower) | Eucalyptus, melon and bergamot open into tuberose, jasmine and ylang-ylang, then white musk and amber. | €17.91 (€5.97/ml) | €44.01 (€4.40/ml) | | 8 | [Serge Lutens Féminité du Bois](https://10ml.com/perfumes/serge-lutens-feminite-du-bois) | Litchi and raspberry open into black rose, cedar and lily, settling on Bourbon vanilla, amber and vetiver. | €9.00 (€3.00/ml) | €28.17 (€2.82/ml) | | 9 | [Amouage Epic Man](https://10ml.com/perfumes/amouage-epic-man) | Pink pepper, olibanum and saffron over myrrh and geranium, with incense, leather, oud and cedar in the base. | €13.77 (€4.59/ml) | €39.33 (€3.93/ml) | | 10 | [Escentric Molecules Molecule 02](https://10ml.com/perfumes/escentric-molecules-molecule-02) | A single material, Ambroxan: the laboratory molecule as the whole perfume. | €8.55 (€2.85/ml) | €24.12 (€2.41/ml) | ## Theophrastus and his treatise on odours [Theophrastus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophrastus) (c. 371 to c. 287 BC) wrote a short treatise, *Concerning Odours*, that reads like a perfumer's workshop notes. We follow Sir Arthur Hort's translation in the Loeb Classical Library, where the odours treatise sits in the second volume; we read its 1926 printing. Three of his observations still hold up: - **Lasting is the point.** Compounding a perfume, he says, aims "at making the odours last", which is why the perfumer needs an oil as the carrier. - **There are three ways to mix.** Liquid with liquid, solid with solid, or solid with liquid, and he says the perfumer's usual way is the last. - **The last ingredient leads.** The material put in last dominates the blend even in a small quantity. His example is myrrh followed by cinnamon. The concern is the one you have today when you ask whether a scent will stay on your skin. ## Pliny the Elder on perfume as a luxury [Pliny the Elder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder) died in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Books 12 and 13 of his *Natural History*, on trees and then on exotic trees with an account of unguents, come from his last years, AD 77 to 79. We follow H. Rackham's translation in the Loeb Classical Library. Pliny disapproves of perfume, but he records a good deal about the trade: - He says nobody records who first discovered perfumes, and that they did not exist in the days of the Trojan War. - He credits them to the Persians. The earliest case he found was a chest of perfumes captured by Alexander from the camp of King Darius. - The most praised perfume, he notes, moved from place to place: first Delos, later the Egyptian town of Mendes. - A "royal" unguent was prepared for the kings of Parthia, and none of its ingredients grows in Italy. - Perfume is the most superfluous luxury, he says, because it fades at once, and he puts its price at "more than 400 denarii per pound". Pliny was already counting the cost. If you want to see what raw materials cost today, per kilo and per ml, our guide to [perfume raw material prices](https://10ml.com/guides/perfume-raw-material-prices) sets it out. ## Septimus Piesse and the musical scale of smells Septimus Piesse (1820 to 1882) was an English chemist and perfumer. His *The Art of Perfumery* came out in London in 1855, with later editions in 1856 and 1862, and [Wikipedia's entry on Piesse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimus_Piesse) is a good place to start. We read the passages below in the Philadelphia printing of 1857. Three passages matter: - **The octave of odours.** Piesse writes that scents, like sounds, "appear to influence" the olfactory nerve in definite degrees. Almond, heliotrope, [vanilla](https://10ml.com/notes/vanilla) and orange blossom, he says, form one octave. A passage on sweet pea in the 1855 edition already carries the idea, and the "gamut of odours" with sheet-music diagrams followed in 1862. - **The jasmine exception.** The smell of almost any flower, he wrote, can be built from known odours, except [jasmine](https://10ml.com/notes/jasmine). - **The appendix.** It lists "Quantities of Ottos yielded by various Plants", a table of oil yields. It is the ancestor of the cost tables in our [raw material price guide](https://10ml.com/guides/perfume-raw-material-prices). Piesse is sometimes credited with inventing the idea of notes. That goes too far, because comparisons between smells and music were already circulating in literary and medical texts. He popularised the comparison, and perfumers still borrow the language of music when they talk about notes. Our guide to [how fragrance notes work](https://10ml.com/guides/perfume-notes-explained) picks the idea up from there. ## Huysmans, A rebours, and the novel as a perfume catalogue Joris-Karl Huysmans published [\_A rebours\_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_rebours) in 1884. It follows the recluse Duke Jean des Esseintes. The English version we cite is *Against the Grain*, translated by John Howard and published in New York in 1922, the first English translation and a considerably censored one. Chapter 10 is the perfume chapter, and it works like an essay on perfume inside a novel: - Des Esseintes sorts his bottles into simple perfumes (pure extracts or spirits) and compound ones, which he calls bouquets. - Huysmans has him argue that perfumes rarely come from the flowers they are named after, and that blended spirits can render nearly every flower. - [Jasmine](https://10ml.com/notes/jasmine) is the exception, the "inimitable jasmine" that cannot be rebuilt from other odours. - The chapter retells French history through scent: [iris](https://10ml.com/notes/iris) powder and [musk](https://10ml.com/notes/musk) for Louis XIII, almond for Louis XV, and Eau de Cologne and rosemary overused under the first empire. ## Proust and the smell of memory Marcel Proust's *Swann's Way* (*Du côté de chez Swann*), the first volume of [\_In Search of Lost Time\_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time), came out in 1913 after Proust paid for its publication himself. The English translation we cite is C. K. Scott-Moncrieff's. In the famous passage, a madeleine dipped in tea sets off a flood of memory. The narrator then says that smell and taste outlast people and things. They wait, he writes, "like souls, ready to remind us", and in a drop of their essence they carry the vast structure of recollection. It is a literary claim, not a laboratory one. ## Egypt, Mesopotamia and Cyprus: the earliest evidence The word perfume came into English from the French *parfum*, built on the Latin *per*, "through", and *fumare*, "to smoke". According to [Wikipedia's article on perfume](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume), perfumery as an art began in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and possibly ancient China. Egypt left a good deal of evidence: - **A real industry.** Tutankhamun's tomb held some 350 litres of oils and fats, according to the Egyptologist Lise Manniche in the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. - **Maceration and boiling.** Egyptian scents were made by steeping materials in fat or oil and by boiling. The best-known preparation details are inscribed in the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu. The Egyptians knew nothing of distillation, the Musées de Grasse says. - **Kyphi.** This compound [incense](https://10ml.com/notes/incense) served religious and medical purposes. Three Ptolemaic recipes survive, at Edfu and Philae. In Mesopotamia, a cuneiform tablet of about 1200 BC names a perfumer called Tapputi at Assur. We say only that the tablet names her. In Cyprus, Italian archaeologists say a perfume works about 4,000 years old stood at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, on a Bronze Age site that also held an olive press, a winery and copper smelting. BBC News reported the find in 2005, with essences of laurel, cinnamon and myrtle taken from clay bottles. The team leader, Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, told Reuters it was the oldest perfume factory in the world, and anise and [bergamot](https://10ml.com/notes/bergamot) were also reported. That is the excavators' reading, and we print it as theirs. ## The Islamic world and the spread of distillation A book attributed to Al-Kindi, who lived from about 801 to 873, is the *Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations*, which, Wikipedia says, gathers over a hundred recipes, from scented oils to salves and aromatic waters. See [Wikipedia on Al-Kindi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Kindi) for the attribution. The English word alembic, for a still, comes from the Arabic *al-inbiq*, itself from the Greek *ambix*. Tradition credits Avicenna (Ibn Sina, c. 980 to 1037) with first deriving flower scents by distillation, rose first. Other sources only say that [rose](https://10ml.com/notes/rose) water most likely began in Persia and was refined by Arab and Persian chemists, so we name no single inventor. Trade did the rest. Persian and Arab traders had wide access to spices, resins, [musk](https://10ml.com/notes/musk) and [ambergris](https://10ml.com/notes/ambergris), and Arabian perfume reached European courts through Al-Andalus in the west and with the crusaders in the east. For how ambergris differs from the Ambroxan molecule used today, see our guide to [ambergris vs ambroxan](https://10ml.com/guides/ambergris-vs-ambroxan). On alcohol, sources disagree on when it was first distilled and who did it. All we can say is that distilled spirit was in use in Europe for medicine long before it was used in perfume. ## Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and the rise of Grasse The Dominican apothecary of Santa Maria Novella in Florence traces its origins to 1221. Hungary water, a rosemary spirit, is among the first alcohol-based perfumes in Europe. Its invention date is lost to history, and the tales about it are mostly from the 17th century, so we print no date and no queen. See [Wikipedia on Hungary water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_water). In 16th-century Florence, Duke Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo established perfumery, and perfumed gloves were highly fashionable at the Medici court. Catherine de' Medici's court helped make perfumed gloves fashionable in France too. We could not confirm the older story that she introduced perfume to France. Gloves link this story to [Grasse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasse): - Tanning in Grasse dates from the 12th century, and its craftsmen began perfuming gloves in the Renaissance. In the 17th century the king recognised a guild of glove-perfumers. - The Musées de Grasse says that in the 18th century the town moved from glove-making to perfumery, after taxes hit tanning. Jean de Galimard was a perfumer in Grasse in 1747, supplying the court of Louis XV. - UNESCO inscribed the perfume skills of the Pays de Grasse on its heritage list in 2018. It says the area has grown and processed perfume plants since at least the 16th century. ## Eau de Cologne Giovanni Maria (Johann Maria) Farina, who lived from 1685 to 1766, was born in Italy and is credited with the first [Eau de Cologne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_Cologne). His brother's firm in Cologne dates from 17 July 1709. Farina's house dates its cologne to 1709, but the German national biography says an earlier Italian in Cologne, Giovanni Paolo Feminis, probably made the aqua mirabilis it grew from, so treat the "inventor" label with care. The name stuck. The 4711 brand has been made in Cologne since at least 1799. In 1853 Guerlain created Eau de Cologne Impériale for Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. Classic colognes lean on citrus oils such as [bergamot](https://10ml.com/notes/bergamot), with [neroli](https://10ml.com/notes/neroli) and [lavender](https://10ml.com/notes/lavender) close by. ## The synthetic century: coumarin, vanillin and nitro musks Wikipedia dates modern perfumery to the late 19th century and the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin and coumarin. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica says the first synthetic perfume was "essence of Mirbane" (nitrobenzene), introduced by Collas about 1850. The shifts that followed are easier to follow in order: - **Coumarin.** It was first isolated from [tonka beans](https://10ml.com/notes/tonka-bean) in 1820 and first synthesised by William Henry Perkin in 1868. - **Vanillin.** Tiemann and Haarmann worked out its structure and a way to make it. Wikipedia gives 1874 and the 1911 Britannica 1875, and they set up the first industrial production of [vanillin](https://10ml.com/notes/vanilla) at Holzminden. - **Nitro musks.** In 1888 Baur discovered the "artificial musks". Natural [musk](https://10ml.com/notes/musk) was used widely until the late 19th century, when economic and ethical motives moved perfumers to synthetics, and because deer musk means killing an endangered animal, nearly all musk used today is synthetic. For today's soft, clean musks, see our guide to [white musk perfumes](https://10ml.com/guides/white-musk-perfumes). Two Paris houses took these materials into scent. Houbigant, founded in 1775, launched Fougère Royale, called the first fougère, in 1882 by its own account (the Musées de Grasse says 1884). The house also introduced Quelques Fleurs in 1912, which it calls the first multi-floral bouquet. Guerlain was founded in 1828, and in 1889 Aimé Guerlain created [Jicky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jicky). Wikipedia calls Jicky the oldest continuously produced perfume and one of the first built with synthetic materials. The Musées de Grasse says Houbigant and Guerlain were the first to use synthetic products, with Jicky celebrating "the advent of vanillin". Jacques Guerlain followed with Mitsouko in 1919 and Shalimar in 1925. More on the house is on the [Guerlain page](https://10ml.com/brands/guerlain), and who owns each house today is mapped in [who owns perfume brands](https://10ml.com/guides/who-owns-perfume-brands). ## The twentieth century: Chanel No. 5, Eau Sauvage and Angel Gabrielle Chanel launched Chanel No. 5 in 1921. It was composed by Ernest Beaux (1881 to 1961), whose key move was using aldehydes as aroma boosters. His road to it began with experiments on the aldehydes in Houbigant's Quelques Fleurs of 1912. We tell it as history only. In 1966 Edmond Roudnitska's Eau Sauvage became Dior's first men's scent. It was also the first commercially successful perfume to use Hedione, a molecule made by Edouard Demole between 1957 and 1962. Angel followed in 1992, often called the first modern gourmand perfume. Our guide to [fragrance families](https://10ml.com/guides/fragrance-families-explained) maps the families these perfumes belong to. ## The niche era and the archive The Osmothèque, described as the world's largest scent archive, was set up in 1990 in Versailles by Jean Kerléo, with senior perfumers including Jean-Claude Ellena and Guy Robert. [Ellena](https://10ml.com/brands/hermes) was Hermès's in-house perfumer from 2004 to 2016. Who counts as the first niche house depends on who you ask. In his book *Perfumes: The A-Z Guide*, Luca Turin writes that L'Artisan Parfumeur, which dates to 1976, was "the first niche firm". Whatever the first was, the shape is clear: - Diptyque's first eau de toilette, L'Eau, was out by 1968. See [Diptyque](https://10ml.com/brands/diptyque). - Frederic Malle opened his house in 2000, and Serge Lutens launched his own brand in the same year. See [Frederic Malle](https://10ml.com/brands/frederic-malle) and [Serge Lutens](https://10ml.com/brands/serge-lutens). - Le Labo opened in New York in 2006. See [Le Labo](https://10ml.com/brands/le-labo). - Le Labo and Frederic Malle both agreed sales to a large beauty group in 2014. For the full map, read [who owns perfume brands](https://10ml.com/guides/who-owns-perfume-brands). For what separates niche from designer today, read [niche vs designer perfume](https://10ml.com/guides/niche-vs-designer-perfume). For the size of the market, see [perfume market and prices](https://10ml.com/guides/perfume-market-and-prices). ## Perfume in literature: Baudelaire and Süskind Huysmans and Proust are above. Two more books give perfume its place in literature. Baudelaire's *Les Fleurs du mal* appeared in 1857. Its sonnet "Correspondances" says that perfumes, colours and sounds answer one another. It calls amber, [musk](https://10ml.com/notes/musk), [benzoin](https://10ml.com/notes/benzoin) and [incense](https://10ml.com/notes/incense) rich, "corrupt" scents. Patrick Süskind's novel *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer* (*Das Parfum*) appeared in 1985. Its hero, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is born in Paris in 1738 and goes to Grasse to learn to preserve scents. John E. Woods made the English translation. The novel is fiction. Piesse's book and Howard's translation of Huysmans are both available free online, and the older texts are easy to find by title. ## Try the history in 3ml You can wear much of this story. Take a 3ml decant to discover a scent (around 60 sprays), a 10ml decant to wear for weeks (around 200), or a 30ml decant to keep (around 600). Each pick below carries one chapter forward. ### Colonia by Acqua di Parma [Colonia](https://10ml.com/perfumes/acqua-di-parma-colonia) by Acqua di Parma was launched in 1916 and belongs to the cologne tradition. It opens on Citrus and Neroli, with Lavender and Rosemary beside them, and Rose and Verbena shape the middle before Sandalwood and Musk. Community voters most often pick it for summer and spring. ### Shalimar Eau de Parfum by Guerlain Jacques Guerlain's Shalimar dates from 1925, and [this Eau de Parfum](https://10ml.com/perfumes/guerlain-shalimar-eau-de-parfum) is listed with a 1990 launch year, so it is a later version of the original. Bergamot and Lemon open into Jasmine, Iris and Rose, then Vanilla, Incense, Leather and Tonka Bean take over. Community voters most often pick it for winter and fall. ### Vétiver by Guerlain [Guerlain Vétiver](https://10ml.com/perfumes/guerlain-vetiver), launched in 1959, shows the house at mid-century. Bergamot and Grapefruit open it, Vetiver and Tobacco form the heart, and Sandalwood and Tonka Bean sit in the base. ### Eau Sauvage by Dior [Eau Sauvage](https://10ml.com/perfumes/dior-eau-sauvage) launched in 1966, and its notes list includes Hedione in the heart. Bergamot, Lemon and Basil open it, Hedione sits beside Jasmine, Rose and Lavender, and Oakmoss and Vetiver close it. Community voters most often pick it for summer and spring. ### Angel by Mugler [Angel](https://10ml.com/perfumes/mugler-angel) launched in 1992. Cotton Candy and Bergamot open it, and the base moves through Caramel, Chocolate and Vanilla to Patchouli. Community votes on its sillage lean enormous. ### Philosykos by Diptyque [Philosykos](https://10ml.com/perfumes/diptyque-philosykos), launched in 1996, was composed by Olivia Giacobetti. Fig and Fig Leaf lead it. The heart adds Green Notes, Coconut and Fig Tree Sap, and Cedar anchors the base. ### Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle [Carnal Flower](https://10ml.com/perfumes/frederic-malle-carnal-flower), launched in 2005, was composed by Dominique Ropion. Eucalyptus and Bergamot open it, Tuberose, Jasmine and Ylang-Ylang carry the heart, and White Musk and Amber close it. ### Féminité du Bois by Serge Lutens [Féminité du Bois](https://10ml.com/perfumes/serge-lutens-feminite-du-bois) opens with Litchi and Raspberry, moves through Black Rose, Cedar and Lily, and settles on Bourbon Vanilla, Amber and Vetiver. Community votes on its longevity lean long lasting. ### Epic Man by Amouage [Epic Man](https://10ml.com/perfumes/amouage-epic-man), launched in 2009, opens with Pink Pepper, Olibanum and Saffron. Myrrh, one of the two materials in Theophrastus's mixing example, sits in the heart, and Incense, Leather and Cedar close it. ### Molecule 02 by Escentric Molecules [Molecule 02](https://10ml.com/perfumes/escentric-molecules-molecule-02) is built on a single material, [Ambroxan](https://10ml.com/notes/ambroxan), which makes it the end of the story this guide tells: a laboratory molecule given the whole stage. ## Frequently asked questions ### Who invented perfume? No single inventor is recorded. Pliny the Elder wrote that nobody records who first discovered perfumes and credited them to the Persians, while the earliest named perfumer is Tapputi, on a Mesopotamian tablet of about 1200 BC. Perfumery as an art began in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and possibly ancient China. ### What is the oldest known perfume? The oldest claim comes from Cyprus, where Italian archaeologists say a perfume works about 4,000 years old stood at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, and that is the excavators' reading. In Egypt, three Ptolemaic recipes for kyphi, a compound incense, survive at the temples of Edfu and Philae. ### Where does the word perfume come from? Perfume came into English from the French parfum, built on the Latin per, through, and fumare, to smoke. The word reflects how closely early perfumery was tied to burnt incense and resins. ### When was Eau de Cologne invented? Farina's firm in Cologne dates its Eau de Cologne to 1709, but the German national biography says an earlier Italian in Cologne, Giovanni Paolo Feminis, probably made the aqua mirabilis it grew from. Treat the exact year and inventor as disputed, and note that the 4711 brand has been made in Cologne since at least 1799. ### What was the first modern perfume? There is no agreed answer. Wikipedia calls Jicky, created by Aimé Guerlain in 1889, the oldest continuously produced perfume and one of the first built with synthetic materials, and Houbigant's Fougère Royale is called the first fougère. Which counts as modern depends on how you define the word. ### Which novels are about perfume? Patrick Süskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985) is the best known, and Huysmans's A rebours (1884) has a whole chapter on perfume. Proust's Swann's Way (1913) is the classic text on smell and memory. ## Sources - [History of perfume (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perfume) - [Perfume (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume) - [Natural History (Pliny) (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny)) - [Theophrastus (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophrastus) - [Septimus Piesse (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimus_Piesse) - [À rebours (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_rebours) - [In Search of Lost Time (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time) - [Perfume, the novel (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_(novel)) - [Hungary water (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_water) - [Eau de Cologne (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_Cologne) - [Grasse (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasse) - [Al-Kindi (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Kindi)