Historic Texts Timeline

At a glance

The same sources as Historic Texts, laid out chronologically instead of by module, from Tapputi's Middle Assyrian perfume tablet (c. 1200 BCE) to today's IFRA standards. Grouped into five eras rather than a strict linear scale, since a true linear timeline would crush three thousand years of ancient sources into a sliver next to the last two centuries. Click any entry to jump straight to its full record. Reference-only entries without a definite year (a handful of catalog citations) aren't placed here, see the full list on Historic Texts.

Ancient World (pre-500 CE)

1239 BCE · 1. History & Culture The Tapputi-Belet-ekallim Tablet (KAR 220) Tapputi-Belet-ekallim; tablet transliterated by Erich Ebeling (1919), analyzed by Escobar (2023)

c. 300 BCE · 1. History & Culture Concerning Odours (De Odoribus) Theophrastus (trans. Sir Arthur Hort)

70 · 1. History & Culture The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides (De Materia Medica) Dioscorides (trans. John Goodyer, 1655; ed. Robert T. Gunther, 1934)

77 · 1. History & Culture Naturalis Historia, Book XIII (Unguents and Perfumes) Pliny the Elder (trans. Bostock & Riley)

100 · 1. History & Culture De Iside et Osiride, §80 (the Kyphi recipe) Plutarch (trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, Loeb Classical Library)

200 · 1. History & Culture The Deipnosophists, Book XV (On Perfumes) Athenaeus of Naucratis (trans. C. D. Yonge, 1854)

Medieval & Islamic Golden Age (500–1400)

550 · 1. History & Culture Bṛhat Saṃhitā, Chapter 77 (Gandhayukti) Varāhamihira (trans. V. Subrahmanya Sastri & M. Ramakrishna Bhat)

830 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Jawāhir al-Ṭīb al-Mufrada ("Simple Aromatic Substances") Yuḥannā ibn Māsawayh (Mesuë Senior)

850 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Al-Kindi's Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī

1000 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Kitāb al-Taṣrīf, Treatise XIX — On Perfumery, Cosmetics, and Aromatic Compounds Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī (Albucasis)

1025 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb) Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

1115 · 1. History & Culture 香譜 (Xiang Pu / "The Incense Manual") Hong Chu (洪芻)

Renaissance & Early Modern (1400–1700)

1527 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction The Vertuose Boke of Distyllacyon Hieronymus Brunschwig (trans. Laurence Andrew)

1530 · 1. History & Culture La Décoration d'Humaine Nature et Ornement des Dames André Le Fournier

1555 · 1. History & Culture Notandissimi Secreti de l'Arte Profumatoria Giovanventura Rosetti

1555 · 1. History & Culture Excellent & Moult Utile Opuscule (Traité des Fardemens et Confitures) Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus)

1558 · 1. History & Culture The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont Alessio Piemontese (trans. William Warde)

1561 · 1. History & Culture I Secreti de la Signora Isabella Cortese Isabella Cortese

1590 · 1. History & Culture Āʾīn-i Akbarī, Volume I (the imperial perfume department) Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (trans. H. Blochmann)

1602 · 1. History & Culture Delightes for Ladies Sir Hugh Platt

1643 · 1. History & Culture 香乘 (Xiang Cheng / "The Records of Incense") Zhou Jiazhou (周嘉胄)

1658 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Natural Magick (Magia Naturalis), Book X: Of Distillation Giambattista della Porta

1693 · 1. History & Culture Le Parfumeur François Simon Barbe

1698 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Traité Universel des Drogues Simples Nicolas Lémery

18th–19th Century (1700–1900)

1733 · 1. History & Culture 香道滝之糸 (Kōdō Taki no Ito) Ōeda Ryūhō (大枝流芳)

1764 · 3. Formulation & Composition Traité des Odeurs Antoine Hornot (writing as "M. Déjean")

1772 · 1. History & Culture The Toilet of Flora Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz

1822 · 3. Formulation & Composition The British Perfumer Charles Lillie

1834 · 3. Formulation & Composition Nouveau Manuel Complet du Parfumeur Madame Celnart (Élisabeth-Félicie Bayle-Mouillard)

1853 · 3. Formulation & Composition Perfumery, Its Manufacture and Use Elisabeth Celnart (trans. Campbell Morfit)

1855 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants G. W. Septimus Piesse

1865 · 1. History & Culture The Book of Perfumes Eugène Rimmel

1866 · 3. Formulation & Composition The Toilet and Cosmetic Arts in Ancient and Modern Times Arnold J. Cooley

1868 · 3. Formulation & Composition A Practical Guide for the Perfumer Hippolyte Dussauce

1874 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The synthesis of vanillin Wilhelm Haarmann & Ferdinand Tiemann

1877 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-al-Aghdhiya (Traité des Simples) Ibn al-Bayṭār (trans. Lucien Leclerc)

1877 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Perfumery and Kindred Arts R. S. Cristiani

1877 · 3. Formulation & Composition A Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumes and Kindred Toilet Articles John H. Snively

1888 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The discovery of synthetic musk Albert Baur

1891 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Piesse's Art of Perfumery (5th Edition) G. W. Septimus Piesse (rev. Charles H. Piesse)

1892 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Perfumes and Their Preparation George William Askinson

1892 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Odorographia, Vol. I John Charles Sawer

1892 · 3. Formulation & Composition A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumery Dr. Carl Deite

1893 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The synthesis of ionone Ferdinand Tiemann & Paul Krüger

1894 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Odorographia, Vol. II John Charles Sawer

1899 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The Chemistry of Essential Oils and Artificial Perfumes Ernest J. Parry

Modern (1900–present)

1900 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Bulletin Scientifique et Industriel de la Maison Roure-Bertrand Fils Roure-Bertrand Fils (Grasse)

1904 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1904) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1906 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1906) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1908 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Le Parfum chez la Plante Eugène Charabot & C.-L. Gatin

1909 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1909 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Terpene und Campher Otto Wallach

1910 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1910–1911) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1911 · 1. History & Culture District Gazetteer of Farrukhabad (the Kannauj scent industry) United Provinces of Agra and Oudh government

1913 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1913) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1913 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The Volatile Oils, Vol. 1 Eduard Gildemeister & Friedrich Hoffmann

1913 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Die Ätherischen Öle, Band 2 (The Volatile Oils, Vol. 2) Eduard Gildemeister & Friedrich Hoffmann

1917 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1917) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1918 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1918–1920) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1921 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. (1921–1922) Schimmel & Co. (Miltitz, near Leipzig)

1921 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The Chemistry of Essential Oils and Artificial Perfumes, Vol. II Ernest J. Parry

1922 · 3. Formulation & Composition La Parfumerie Moderne, Vol. 15 (1922) René-Maurice Gattefossé (ed.)

1922 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The Volatile Oils, Vol. 3 Eduard Gildemeister & Friedrich Hoffmann (ed.)

1923 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps (Vol. 1: The Raw Materials of Perfumery) William A. Poucher

1924 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Les Parfums de France (as Revue des Marques, Parfums de France) Établissements Antoine Chiris (Grasse)

1926 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps (Vol. 2: Practical Perfumery, With Especial Reference to Synthetics) William A. Poucher

1927 · 1. History & Culture The Mystery and Lure of Perfume C. J. S. Thompson

1927 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Les Parfums: Chimie et Industrie Paul Jeancard

1930 · 1. History & Culture The Papyrus Ebers trans. Cyril P. Bryan (from the German edition)

1938 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials The Scientific Basis of Odour Malcolm Dyson

1947 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction Natural Perfume Materials: A Study of Concretes, Resinoids, Floral Oils and Pomades Y. R. Naves & G. Mazuyer (trans. Edward Sagarin)

1948 · 2. Raw Materials & Extraction The Essential Oils, Vol. I Ernest Guenther

1954 · 5. Modern Reference & Regulation The Practice of Modern Perfumery Paul Jellinek

1960 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin Steffen Arctander

1961 · 3. Formulation & Composition A Method of Creation in Perfumery Jean Carles

1969 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Perfume and Flavor Chemicals (Aroma Chemicals) Steffen Arctander

1975 · 3. Formulation & Composition Perfumery Technology: Art, Science, Industry F. V. Wells & Marcel Billot

1980 · 3. Formulation & Composition Le Parfum Edmond Roudnitska

1990 · 4. Chemistry of Aroma Materials Headspace Analysis and the "Living Flower" Roman Kaiser (Givaudan) and Braja Mookherjee (IFF)

1991 · 5. Modern Reference & Regulation A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A Molecular Basis for Odor Recognition Linda B. Buck & Richard Axel

1994 · 5. Modern Reference & Regulation Perfumery: Practice and Principles J. Stephan Jellinek & Robert R. Calkin

1999 · 1. History & Culture Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy, and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt Lise Manniche

2018 · 1. History & Culture Le kyphi dans les papyrus grecs Hélène Chouliara-Raïos

2020 · 1. History & Culture Southern Africa as a 'Cradle of Incense' in Wider African Aromatherapy Nicholas J. Sadgrove

2020 · 6. Documented Reformulation Case Studies The Oakmoss Restriction and the Chypre Reformulation Era IFRA Standard on Oakmoss Extracts (Amendment 49, 2020)

2021 · 1. History & Culture Gandhaśāstram: A Panoramic View on Cosmetics and Perfumes in Sanskrit Literature ed. M. Padmanabha Marathe Kaeel; Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Ramtek

2023 · 1. History & Culture Ritual Relationships with Copal Incense Rebecca J. Mendoza