A Taste for the Scent of Sugar: Perfumery and Confectionery in 19th-Century France

While the role of synthetic materials such as coumarin, heliotropin, and vanillin in the development of the perfume industry at the end of the 19th century is often acknowledged, it is frequently overlooked that these substances were initially used to flavor candies and liquors—two highly sweetened products made accessible through colonial trade networks. This study aims to examine the historical relationship between perfumery and confectionery, highlighting how the interplay between these artisanal and industrial practices informed olfactory sensibilities in 19th- century France and shaped its relationship with taste.
Both perfumery and confectionery share common goals: preserving the freshness of seasonal ingredients, offering potential medicinal benefits, and providing sensory pleasure. To investigate this relationship, I will first examine the explicit analogies made in professional treatises and identify shared techniques between perfumers and confectioners. The primary focus, however, will be on the ambiguities found in recipes, the evolution of materials associated with sugar in perfume compositions, and advertisements for perfumes published in the feminine press, which often emphasized the sweet qualities of raw ingredients. This analysis will illustrate how certain associations between specific scents and the taste of sweetness emerged during this period. Keywords: perfumery, confectionery, sweet, sugar, vanillin

Kimberly Webb (School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona State University, USA)

Yea, Verily!: Towards a New Precognitive-Cognitive Framework in Medieval-Themed Dinner Theater

This paper argues for a trifurcated theoretical framework of emotional analysis that marries constructivist, cognitive perspectivist, and precognitive theories of film viewing—or, perhaps more accurately, experiencing. The phenomenon of experiencing, through media or through simply living, I argue, is a synthesis of meaning-making and emotional elicitation. The process of meaning-making and emotional elicitation—which go hand in hand and are inextricably linked to each other—is concurrently subjective and objective. When encountering sensory stimuli, there is an immediate, objective, ubiquitous emotional response followed by a subjective cognitive response determined by the identity and experiences of the recipient. While these tenets have been argued as separate and, in some cases, mutually exclusive, their synthesis is necessary to create a nuanced and holistic understanding of the emotional responses to sensory stimuli—emotions are not felt in a vacuum. However, there is a degree of standardization of emotional elicitation in the experience of a particular atmosphere or ambiance. This study aims to create this synthesized framework and to make it flexible enough to apply to studies beyond film spectatorship-- but to the medievalist dining experience of Medieval Times.

Keywords: atmospheric studies, constructivism, sensory medievalism, Medieval Times, dinner theater

Giorgia M. Maffioli Brigatti ∆ (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), University of Cambridge, UK)
Gardens (būstān) as Fragrant Abodes: An Olfactory Approach to Persianate Studies

The Persian word būstān is loosely translated in English as “garden” and, for this reason, is often used interchangeably with golestān, which is also translated as “garden”. However, there is an essential difference. The first refers to the garden as a place of fragrance (bū), while the latter identifies it as the abode of flowers (gol). The two terms underline a different conception of gardens that are detectable only in the original language. Similarly, little attention has been given to the sensory understanding of the poetry and art of Iran in the Early Modern Period, and this paper aims to address this gap through an interdisciplinary approach.
My presentation will be divided into three parts: garden treatises aimed at increasing the fragrance of trees, flowers, and fruit; descriptions of gardens in literary texts; and visual representations of gardens. When approached through the olfactory understanding and philosophies of the time, this body of knowledge and art gives the scholar more insight into the rich cultural practices of Medieval and Early Modern Iran.
My paper reflects on the conference theme of the history of the sense, and it is situated in the broader context of ensuing sensory approaches to Middle Eastern Studies.
Keywords: smell studies, gardens, Iran, history of art, poetry