SMELLY PROPAGANDA: PERFUMERY DURING THE ITALIAN FASCIST REGIME

What did the fragrance industry look (and smell) like during the tumultuous socio-political crisis of the Italian Fascist Regime?


Propaganda poster; ''Autarky Perfumery Week'' by National Union of Fragrance Retailers


There's a constant (and voluntary?) omission in how olfaction has been politically weaponized within the market-driven storytelling of history of perfumery.

 Privately owned archives make any attempt of independent academic research particularly difficult to pursue, leaving a lot of convenient gaps on the 'industrial turn' of olfaction and its involvements in imperial and colonial history.

While this has been rapidly changing, with many diverse institutions and communities joining forces towards an implementation of open access resources (see 'sensory turn' in the late 1980s pioneered by Canadian and US universities, the vital conservatory and educational missions behind The Institute of Arts and Olfaction and Osmotheque, and the many independent realities and scholars making the historical advance of these disciplines possible- to name some of the most prolific authors/activists in the field: Nuri McBride, Andrew Kettler, Hsuan L. Hsu, Odeuropa team, etc!), it is still often difficult to find accessible historical resources that do not evolve around a revised storytelling of the industry involvement in strategically reinforcing systems of oppression and confinement.


We reached out to Mariaceleste Lombardo, a Junior Perfumer at Moellhausen and an avid collector of historiographical perfumery material, after discovering  her post sharing few extracts from  'Rivista Italiana delle Essenze e Profumi' (Italian Journal of Essences and Perfumes) - a Propaganda organ of the Aromatic Materials Producers Group of the National Fascist Industrial Chemical Products Federation. 
She kindly allowed us to re-publish some of the extracts of the issue dated December 15th, 1931, and you can find below a translation of the content.


I remembered Mariaceleste's name from an exhibition in Turin by Accademia del Profumo, where one of her compositions inspired by Argento's Suspiria was presented.
The vetiver-centered perfume was honestly one of the very few creations of the exhibition to translate into a strong and original multidisciplinary olfactory idea , and since then I have been following with extreme curiosity her career, discovering via social media her impressive collection of perfumery journals and books.
I cannot be grateful enough to Mariaceleste for her generosity in sharing such important resources, and I hope the below can turn useful to anyone looking to diversify their understanding of the history of perfumery.


Acknowledgment: Photos by Mariaceleste Lombardo, Junior Perfumer at Moellhausen- Thank you Mariaceleste!





Italian Journal of Essences and Perfumes: 
A monthly DEFENSE PERIODICAL FOR   perfumery, and the soap, liquor, confectionery, pharmaceutical, and drugstore industries

Propaganda organ by the Aromatic Materials Producers Group of
The National Fascist Federation of Industrial Chemical Products



INDEX :

Text:
Professor Guido Rovesti- Italian Perfumes, Cosmetics, and Essences through centuries p. 355

OUTTEXT:

Chemical Industry Federation: Board Reunion p. XXVI
Perfume manufacturers & toiletry soap Sub-group p. ivi
New international manufacturing brands p. XXVII
Lawyer Nello Fiorini: Venus' flower p. XXVIII
Dr. Adelaide Labo':  p. XXXI
Toiletry soaps p. XXXIV
Treccani encyclopedy p. ivi
Competitions/contests p. XXXVII
Bibliography p. ivi
The magazine of magazines p.XXXVIII
Personal news p. XL
Ministerial Decree p.ivi
First International Exposition of Colonial Art p.ivi
Current commercial performance of herbal products p. XLI
Natural and synthetic materials' general market performance p. XLIII
Information p. XLIV
Citruses essential oils market p. XLV
General index of 1931 p. XLVI





We say goodbye to the vanishing year of 1931 with delusion but not rancour, and welcome with many hopes the upcoming 1932.
Hopes and delusions, here comes life and the alternative which often leaves us tired, perplexed, but also gives us the acute desire of winning at any cost, in order to complete our mission.
 To our numerous friends around the world, we send fervent wishes, hoping that all their efforts will be met with victory, and that faith in themselves will withstand this tumultuous period that humankind is going through: be this Christmas gentle to everyone, and let 1932 start with the best auspices! 

Spes ultima dea (Hope is the last Goddess)




ITALIAN PERFUMES, COSMETICS, AND ESSENCES THROUGH THE CENTURIES
by Prof. Guido Rovesti




INTRODUCTION: 
Cicero, De Oratore, II, 36

In the preface of Edoardo Thrope's 'History of Chemistry' , Rinaldo Pitoni writes:
<<Cesare Cantu' wonders: Could they claim to know Greece by having only visited Marathon and Chaeronea, and by not getting involved in the local schools to reason about God with Xenophanes and Plato, or about virtues with Socrates and Zenon, cosmology with Pythagoreans, and hygiene with Hippocrates?  
In that opening sentence, Cantu' wanted to prove that tracing and studying the history of a century and its people shouldn't be limited to the narration of its wars and subsequent peace periods (as it's unfortunately currently taught in schools) : instead, it should be intersected with and incorporated to the history of the spirit's manifestations; therefore, concerning the intellectual, imaginary states, and human reasons of the given subject of study.>>

This is what Bacon meant when he thought that without a history of ideas, the history of the world <<seems as the statue of Polyphemus without the eye ; because views mutation moves the intellect and subverts governments.>> 
And he proceeds:<< It's a banal truth that the present reason is already in the past. 
Every new research presumes critical work; and those who attempt to discover new truths are always forced to write, at least in their brain, a chapter on scientific history.
One day the history of science will constitute the teaching of science; and the current teaching methods will be abandoned, remaining useful only to the mechanics of science, or to those who already know of not being able to expose a systematic complex of their cognitions: therefore, a method lacking of critical skills, used to passive docility and intellectual nullity.>>

Edison, the genius who recently passed away, used to pride himself to base his work ethos and methodology on studying of evolution of science through the centuries- this being applicable to all the following example.
The history of fragrance, cosmetics, and essences, belonging to both science and art, had its own illustrious pioneers, of whom we quote Eugene Rimmel, S. Gildemeister, I.S. Thompson, O. Reveil, Felix Cola, without forgetting smaller authors who wrote for Journals and Encyclopedias- even though their work often presents way too general argumentations, lacks of substantial documentation, intentionally omits or briefly mentions important dates and episodes, distorting the facts; anyway, no one mentions the supremacy  Italy had on the whole world in those fields, and mantained for many centuries.
We have wanted to fill this gap because we are convinced followers, in our long experience... 

[ Missing Text ] 


REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN





The use of perfume and cosmetics can be considered as ancient as the man on the verge of his civilization.
We think it's been used since the early neolithic period, and that it had quite the contrary of a light importance in the aesthetic transformation of primitive humans.
 Mantegazza says that <<nature made a hairy, fetid, oily, and wormy man; it was civilization -which is nothing but the art of beauty and good-,  that got us the Venus de Milo and the Apollo Belvedere.>>
 But his evolution had to be very slow, and it's logical to speculate that for many centuries humanking - in order to satisfy its needs of voluctuous products subject to our study, had to its disposition an extremely limited palette of ingredients, directly provided from nature.
Caio Plinio the second, in his 'Natural History' states that Asia was the first part of the world to use perfumers and ointments, and this claim can't be questioned, since Asia was the cradle of humankind and oriental civilization, proceeding any other culture.
The oldest historical documents on the matter, were in fact, the egyptians, tracing to circa 4000 BC. The first known Egyptian perfume formula, decoded from the  hieroglyphic incision in a monument of the first Pharaohs, should be the following:



Carob Fruits 1 han 3/20
Dry incense 4 ten 1 qad
Liquidambar bark 6 ten
Acorus calamus 2 qad 1/2
Asphalt 1 qad
Lentisk 1 qad
Tekh seeds 1 qad 1/2
Wine 1/2 han
Water 1 han 1/20

Many perfume and cosmetic manufacturing companies existed in Alexandria, also producing special balsalms used for corpses embalming during the process of mummification.
The oldest perfume and cosmetic books we know are the indian Veda and the Bible. 
[missing text]


CORPORATE FRAMEWORK OF MANUFACTURING COMPANIES







PHOTOS FROM THE NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PERFUMES AND ESSENCES (1939) BY THE WOMEN'S FASCIST FEDERATION; 











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