Santa Maria Novella, the Florentine pharmacy and perfumery tracing its origins back to 1221 when Dominican friars began preparing herbal remedies and scented waters, is widely cited as one of the oldest continuously operating perfume houses in the world — though ‘oldest’ claims in perfumery are often disputed and shaped as much by marketing as by strict historical record.

Why these claims deserve a little scepticism

Perfume history is full of houses that market themselves around a founding date, and the precise, unbroken continuity of some of these claims can be difficult to verify centuries later. Santa Maria Novella’s origin story is unusually well documented for its era, growing out of a genuine monastic apothecary tradition rather than a purely commercial start, which is part of why its claim tends to be treated with more confidence than some others in the industry.

  • Santa Maria Novella: origins traced to 1221, a Dominican apothecary in Florence
  • Many other ‘oldest house’ claims are harder to verify with full historical certainty
  • Worth treating exact founding dates in perfumery with some healthy scepticism generally

Other long-running names, including Guerlain and various royal perfumers across Europe and the Middle East, also have genuinely deep, well-documented histories, even if none quite match Santa Maria Novella’s particular claim to continuous operation.

Our guide to the history of perfume and our complete guide to perfume explore this and other historic houses in more depth.