A highly knowledgeable scent historian and perfumer, Nuri McBride ‘has lectured in various circumstances, from university classrooms to sleepaway camps. All have provided a fantastic opportunity to explore and learn. We have joined several of her lectures ourselves, and recommend them wholeheartedly. In this session, offered via atroposparfums.com, she will explore smell, suspicion, and sorcery in early modern Europe…
Why did witches smell like sulphur? Why were women’s bodies linked to perfume, poison, and pestilence? And how did smell become evidence of witchcraft?
In this lecture, Nuri McBride examines the role of scent in the European witch hysterias between the 15th and 18th centuries. This period saw tens of thousands of people, mostly women, accused of witchcraft, with olfactory cues often cited in their condemnation. Fragrances were not neutral; they marked the difference between sanctity and sin, medicine and malice.
The session will explore how olfactory language and the existing scent culture shaped legal, theological, and popular narratives about witches. From the sulphurous stench of Hell to the alluring perfumes of seductresses, it will trace the ways scent was weaponised in trials, sermons, and folklore. The lecture will also examine the changing certainty around how truth was known in early modern Europe.
It is a module in the course The Scent of Gods & Monsters: Olfaction & Belief, which you can read more about here, but can be enjoyed as a single lecture.
Who Should Take This Class
You will love this class if you are...
Interested in the history and cultural significance of scent
Fascinated by the history of the witch trials
Curious about the intersection of fragrance, theology, and law
A writer, artist, or scent maker seeking dark historical inspiration
Drawn to sensory history and the politics of the body
Your ticket includes access to:
• The live lecture, including the live Q&A
• The recording of the lecture, available for 30 days
Tickets $27 (US dollars – around £20.50) – book here