The Smell of History

At the Institute for Digital Archaeology in Oxford, UK, scientists are conjuring up ways for visitors to catch a whiff of the past. In a planned exhibit at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, visitors will experience odours captured from rare books and manuscripts using sealed chambers and high-tech filtration systems. The essences will be disseminated with nebulisers that create scent clouds of superfine mists. Included in the collection is a copy of the Magna Carta ( a 13th century document detailing the rights, privileges and liberties of the clergy and nobles, and placing limits on the power of the English crown) from 1217 with a slightly swampy odour. Other smells include Egyptian papyrus and a perfumed Romeo and Juliet. The quantity of scent essence possible to extract from a single book is limited, however, and only the exhibit’s first visitors will get to whiff the literal molecules of the archive. Future visitors will get a spray of the institute’s synthetic reproduction of ‘eau de Magna Carta’ instead.