Marie-Antoinette, she loved herbs.and flower scents..
far from being the superficial woman she was declared to be..
Origins of Aromatherapy
Modern Aromatherapy ,started with the French
Ingénieur,chimiste ,René-Maurice Gattefossé in 1937.
Unfortunately most writers on Aromatherapy ignore the background
on how Maurice Gattefossé came to start the movement ,They seem happy
to believe the "urban Myths" that every commercial company
and some of the popular authors seem to spread. Maybe there is
a need for simple stories we can believe in ?
on how Maurice Gattefossé came to start the movement ,They seem happy
to believe the "urban Myths" that every commercial company
and some of the popular authors seem to spread. Maybe there is
a need for simple stories we can believe in ?
The famous narrative of the laboratory fire (1910),burning his hand
and "miraculously " being saved by Lavender -oil is repeated ad nauseam.
Nobody seems to wonder ,if really a person trained in chemistry
and technology of aromatic plant extraction ,who starts a
Perfumery - Journal , will need the experience of a lavender -
"miracle-cure ?
His journal ,"la Parfumerie moderne" had the declared target
to promote french aromatic plant producers and Gattefossé
was one of its founders..
We are also made to believe that in these days, nobody knew about
essential oils and their therapeutic value.
and "miraculously " being saved by Lavender -oil is repeated ad nauseam.
Nobody seems to wonder ,if really a person trained in chemistry
and technology of aromatic plant extraction ,who starts a
Perfumery - Journal , will need the experience of a lavender -
"miracle-cure ?
His journal ,"la Parfumerie moderne" had the declared target
to promote french aromatic plant producers and Gattefossé
was one of its founders..
We are also made to believe that in these days, nobody knew about
essential oils and their therapeutic value.
Gattefossé really did lots of extraordinary things, he can be considered
a cultural hero. There is of course a mythical dimension to Aromatherapy.
- But why understate the existing popular and scientific knowledge existing
in the 19th century and around the beginning of the20th century ?
Many Aromatherapists actually do not know that there is a rich background
and that long before Gattefossé there was Osmology and Osphrésiology.
Gattefossé himself was not pretending to start all this .He knew very well
how much he owed to earlier scientists and the empirical users of
essential oils. It is only the mix of pseudo-scientific lore
and commercial interest that reduces the rich history of Aromatherapy.
We need to know the authentic roots to start to develop
a genuine identity. Without defending the real identity ,
Aromatherapy will be absorbed by medical science.
a cultural hero. There is of course a mythical dimension to Aromatherapy.
- But why understate the existing popular and scientific knowledge existing
in the 19th century and around the beginning of the20th century ?
Many Aromatherapists actually do not know that there is a rich background
and that long before Gattefossé there was Osmology and Osphrésiology.
Gattefossé himself was not pretending to start all this .He knew very well
how much he owed to earlier scientists and the empirical users of
essential oils. It is only the mix of pseudo-scientific lore
and commercial interest that reduces the rich history of Aromatherapy.
We need to know the authentic roots to start to develop
a genuine identity. Without defending the real identity ,
Aromatherapy will be absorbed by medical science.
So let us look at the man who started systenatic Osmology.
J.-J. Virey published 1812 for the first time a systematic text
on Osmology ,treating odours,essential oils and resins
in their medical, psychological and anthropological dimension.
There was one earlier publication by Jean-Simon de Hillier ,
a medical doctor from Verdun (Lorraine) . He used for the
first time the name "Osmology" ( in 1623) and it speaks clearly
about the therapeutic use of fragrance materials aganst "miasmic
disease.", meaning epidemies like the plague.. The book deals with
aromatic herbs and scents against the menace of plague n Lorraine
Both men have used ideas by the father of greek herbal medicine,
Theophrastes, who was the first person to write a treatise on smells :
"de odoribus" . Shortly after de Hillier,there was an italian writer,
Petrus Servius, who wrote another "de odoribus" -treaty( in 1641. )
He lived in Rome , was a friend of Gabriel Naudé- possibly an influence
on Louis XIII and Richelieu -both very interested in fragrance - therapy
with aromatic plants ,fumigations etc.
Saint Hillier was also medical advisor to the king, Louis XIII.
Through the middle ages ,by absorbing arabic medical knowledge,
there was always interest and use of aromatic plants, fumigations
,inhalations etc. The school of Salerno helped to spread this
traditional knowledge and Charlemagne tried to civilise the
germanic people through importing more than 80 aromatic
and medicinal herbs (Capitulare de Villis)
The vision of these days was expressed in the poem "Hortulus"
by Walahfrid Strabo ,a monk from the Cloister Reichenau
at the Lake of Constance.
In Italy, Renaissance scholars ,especiallly Marsilio Ficino
expressed the spiritual power of fragrance.He saw them as a way
to reintegration with the higher spheres. The neoplatonic movement
and the courts of the Medici, the "love-court" of Cardinal Bembo
and Catherine Cornaro , queen of Cyprus ,expressed this lifestyle.
Painters like Giorgione and Tizian give us an insight
how sophisticated these people were.
Two famous italian books at the end of the Renaissance period
resumed the high standards of italian perfumers and doctors .
The "Book of the Secrets of Master Alexis ,the "Piedmontese"
and Signora Isabella Cortese, divulging her "secrets... It is believed
that through Catherine de Medicis many aromatic specialists
came to France and helped to start the french supremacy
in fragrance preparations..
Grasse became the center of the perfumery world .
It concentrated the "savoir-faire" which we find in the 18th to
19th century Distillers,perfumers and finally in Osmology
and Aromatherapy..
So , long before René-Maurice Gattefossé founded modern
Aromatherapy, Osmology was already looking back on a
profound tradition with an empirical basis.
that"s me ..