Osmothèque

The Osmothèque (from Greek osmē "scent" patterned on French bibliothèque "library") is the world's largest scent archive, a leading international research institution tracing the history of perfumery, based in Versailles with conference centers in New York City and Paris. Founded in 1990 by Jean Kerléo and other senior perfumers including Jean-Claude Ellena and Guy Robert, the Osmothèque is internationally responsible for the authentication, registration, preservation, documentation and reproduction of thousands of perfumes gathered from the past two millennia, archived at the Osmothèque repository and consultable by the public. Exclusive to the collection are countless rare masterpieces elsewhere discontinued or reformulated, including François Coty’s Chypre (Coty), Paul Parquet’s Fougère Royale (Houbigant) and Aimé Guerlain's Jicky (Guerlain) as well as numerous personalized fragrances worn by historical figures such as Elizabeth of Poland, Napoleon and Eugénie de Montijo. From 2008 to 2020, Patricia de Nicolaï served as the institution's president. Since July 2020, independent perfumer Thomas Fontaine had been serving as its President, along with Christopher Sheldrake as the Vice President.

Library data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).