The art of perfume from Florence to Paris

When in 1533 the fourteen-year-old Catherine de’ Medici married the Duke of Orléans, the future king of France who was also fourteen, she brought her trusted perfumer Renato Bianco with her to the French court.

With him, the future Queen also brought the root of the Florentine Iris, the lily symbol of the city also known as “Giaggiolo” which in May stains the woods around Florence with purple, with which Florentine Powder is obtained, an aromatic powder used to whiten the skin of the face and perfume fabrics.

In addition to introducing the use of essences and perfumes to the court, the sovereign also brought, thanks to her perfumer, the fashion for perfumed gloves, which she often used, and which Renè aromatized with a perfumed balm that eliminated the bad smell of leather gloves and kept the skin of the queen’s hands perfumed, hydrated and smooth.

René le Florentin, as Renato Bianco was called by the Parisians, contributed to the birth of a myriad of perfumes and new perfumers who opened shops throughout Paris to dedicate themselves to a society eager to “smell good” and became increasingly rich and powerful, attracting hatred and envy at court.

Everyone feared the Florentins, the few who had stood in his way had died after unspeakable suffering… His enemies feared him for his “dark” arts, which the queen also used: was it she who asked for the perfumed gloves soaked in poison given to Jeanne d’Albret, mother of Henry IV, which caused her death? According to legend, it was he who invented an essence with which he perfumed his linens which, reacting to body heat and sweat, became a powerful acid, burning the skin amidst excruciating suffering. The formulas of his perfumes and colognes have been lost over the centuries, except for L’Eau de la Reine “the Queen’s Water”, a perfumed water with citrus essences with a predominance of Calabrian bergamot created for Catherine. The original recipe is still kept in the place where it was created: the apothecary of the Dominican friars’ convent, which later became Officina Profumo di Santa Maria Novella and is still in production under the name of Acqua di Colonia (Cologne).

As controversial as his figure is, the importance that Renato Bianco – Renè Le Florentin had at the Court of France is undeniable, changing the customs of society and laying the foundations of the modern art of perfumery.