The sense of smell in historical perspective

Abstract

The writing of a history of a particular sense is both an original and risky undertaking. Its diachronic implementation confronts the historian with huge, though not necessarily insurmountable, problems. There may be certain conceptual difficulties, but not the least of these is the lack of written records. The history of smell, in comparison, can draw from a small base of evidence from which the historicity of this sense, its modes of use, and its frames of reference, may be ascertained. These sources consist of normative texts, such as conduct books and health manuals, moral-theological and philosophical treatises and, not least, so-called ‘selfdocumentations,’ that give us glimpses of cultural practices and the experience of possessing a body.