Feminis was an adventurous youth and left Italy for Germany to make it big. Like many doctors of his time, he was also a barber, a dentist and a botanist with a deep knowledge of drugs, plants, fruits and flowers.
“Feminis was a modern day scientist/doctor, an expert of spices who well knew the art of mixing essences and herbs to heal all sorts of body aches and pains, from digestion problems to skin rashes and headaches,” says Monica Mattei, the head of the culture office in Santa Maria Maggiore in Italy’s Piedmont region, where Feminis was born. There, a museum dedicated to the true origin of eau de cologne, Casa del Profumo (“House of Perfume” in Italian), has opened.
The museum features displays of glass containers, paintings of Feminis and original parchments that describe the essence. There is also an olfactory showcase of essences, a garden of aromas and an exhibition of old costumes and jewels. Its shop sells local artisan eau de cologne, perfume dispensers, herbal teas and scented body sanitisers.
Feminis, who poured money back into Santa Maria Maggiore when he became wealthy, is such an icon in his hometown that his face has been immortalised as a popular carnival mask.
“His miraculous water’s incredible antiseptic properties still survive today,” Mattei says. “In Turkey, people are using it as a hand sanitiser to kill the coronavirus.” Known as kolonya there, eau de cologne may have been exported to Turkey in the early 1900s during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and is currently being used in the belief it will halt the spread of Covid-19.
Feminis’ original Aqua Mirabilis was a light liquid probably taken as drops on sugar cubes or mixed with water to make a delicious, citrus-flavoured medicinal drink. Legend has it that both French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte and German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were among the many who regularly consumed huge quantities of it.
Its transformation into a fragrance happened when another Italian realised its commercial potential as a beauty product. Giovanni Maria Farina, who had migrated to Maastricht, Holland, was a distant cousin of Feminis and from the same town.
“Working side by side, they developed an essence that is probably the most copied perfume in history,” Mattei says. “When Farina opened an apothecary shop in Cologne to sell his many essences, his new formula was copied, sold, stolen or passed on to other perfume-makers. What followed was a story of infinite legal battles between various perfume producers to claim the paternity of what would later be named eau de cologne.”
Farina’s original recipe included essences of most citrus varieties, including the lemons that even now grow along the shores of Lake Como, north of Milan, as well as rosemary, grapefruit, mandarin, bergamot, lavender and thyme. To give the fragrance a faint, delicate woody aroma, it was kept in wooden barrels.
That both Feminis and Farina were Italians living abroad has contributed to the myth that eau de cologne has French or German roots.
“It is a peculiar essence, not directly made in Italy but with an Italian soul, born and nurtured in Italy,” says Roberto Dario, a perfumer and scientist at the Italian company Esperienze Olfattive.
“Let’s not forget that the birth of perfumery occurred in Italy after the Middle Ages,” Dario says. “Venice was the cradle of perfumes and essences thanks to its harbour and the spice trade routes to Asia. During the Renaissance, the perfume-making art flourished in the court of Catherine de’ Medici, who later married a French king and took perfume to France. That’s how the French developed them.”
According to Dario, French soldiers returning home after the Seven Years’ War against Germany (a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763) stopped in Cologne, tried the essence and took it back with them to France. The French named it eau de cologne after the city where they found it, and thus all Italian traces of Aqua Mirabilis faded into obscurity.
“The real paternity of Aqua Mirabilis is usually known only to perfume history amateurs and experts who care about researching the origins of specific perfumes,” Mattei says. “That’s why we opened this museum – to tell the real story of the familiar essence … and to mark the history of our ancestors’ emigration from our land.”
The Academy of Perfume in Italy is also keen to promote eau de cologne’s real origins to the general public.
“We’re committed to recognising the huge historical, artistic and cultural heritage found in all perfume flacons,” academy president Ambra Martone says. “Each fragrance tells a story and comes with a flow of emotions often surrounded by mystery and legend, such as eau de cologne. It is a product with deep roots in Italy, like many other fragrances that have had global success.”
Eau de cologne has come to indicate a particular category and classification in perfumery referring to the family of citrusy essences, Dario says.
“It is unisex but can be made more masculine with a twist of spiced wood, or more feminine with a flowery touch. Above all, it’s delicate, light and refreshing. It does not have the strong perfume and alcoholic concentration of other types, such as eau de toilette.”
These days, there are mainly three eau de colognes that are made according to the original Italian formula, Mattei says: the French Jean Marie Farina, and the German 4711 and Farina 1709, both based in Cologne.
Nearly all of the world’s perfumers and olfactory artisans produce their own eau de cologne fragrances. No matter the history, though, it continues to be popular.
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