In this groundbreaking history, Will Tullett takes your nose on a journey through the past and across the globe. Along the way we sniff the foul, the fragrant, and everything in between. Ranging from ancient aromas to modern malodours, this book shows how much richer our understanding of the past can be if we follow our noses rather than accepting that only seeing is believing. The scent of burning incense filled medieval churches, theatres in nineteenth-century Paris were thick with smoke: smells have been central to our sense of place and belonging, and, perhaps less positively, to mark those deemed unwelcome. Our sense of smell brings us the pleasure of good food, wine and perfume, but it also warns us of dangers like fire, gas and rot. From the enchanting scent of books and libraries to the disgusting stench of whale fat in candles and soap, what emerges is not just a history of smells, but a sense of the lived experiences of all those who sniffed them. We often think that the past smelled bad, but really – as Tullett shows us – it just smelled different.

Will Tullett is a senior lecturer in early modern history at the University of York. He is the author of Smell in Eighteenth-Century England: A Social Sense and Smell and the Past: Noses, Archives, Narratives.