The Pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella

Years ago my mother visited and brough me back "Aqua di Colonia" in a stout rectangular glass bottle with an embossed gold label. The distinctive packaging harkened back to a much earlier time and having majored in history and art history for my undergraduate work, I found the monastic pharmacy intriguing. In doing some simple research, I learned that that pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella in Florence Italy was established by the Dominican fathers in 1221. The pharmacy, based on herbalism, developed a wide-range of products from cologne to smelling salts, cleaning agents, candles and so on. The Dominicans used rose water as an anticeptic to clean homes stricken with the plague and interestingly enought, the product is still being sold (but now used as aromotherapy.)

Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy expanded to the United States on both coasts - in NY and LA.
I found a very good article courtesy of the Smithsonian with some excerpts below.

...Also among the early creations were tonics reflecting the sensibility of the times: the imaginatively named "Vinegar of the Seven Thieves," for example, was a popular remedy for women suffering from "fainting fits." The vinegar is still available for those in need of a quick pick-me-up. Also available to Florentine ladies was a concoction designed to calm "hysterical women." It, too, is still on the shelves, bearing the innocuous name Santa Maria Novella Water—now recommended for its "antispasmodic properties."

The operation's manufacture of perfumes was apparently key to winning the allegiance of its most famous customer, Catherine de' Medici.The pharmacy created a new fragrance for her, a perfume that became known as acqua della regina, or "water of the queen." In due course, Catherine's patronage proved the making of the place.

The growth of the business was not welcomed by all; unease among some monks that the sweet smell of success might distract from the Christian pieties led to a temporary shutdown of the production of medicines in the early 1600s. But manufacture resumed in 1612, for a run of two and a half centuries. In 1866 the Italian state confiscated all church property. The move could have been the pharmacy's death knell but for the vision of the last monk to act as its director, Damiano Beni. In a deft move, he handed over control of the enterprise to his layman nephew, who eventually bought it from the state. His descendants remain involved in the business today.

As a secular endeavor, the pharmacy could fully exploit the trends of the times. In the 1700s, it had expanded its product line from distilling medicines and perfumes to manufacturing alcohol. In the 19th century, as alcohol-laden patent medicines and tonics became all the rage in the United States, the pharmacy's liqueur, Alkermes—advertised as a way to "revive weary and lazy spirits"—became a top seller.

Today the pharmacy still occupies its historic quarters, but it has expanded into an international concern, with stores in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Eight years ago it opened a small factory two miles away, where the monks' ancient techniques have been streamlined, but where much of the manufacturing continues to be done by hand. The factory can turn out 500 bars of soap a day in any one of 25 varieties; each bar is then aged for a month before being chiseled by hand into its final shape.

For the complete article, go to:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/heaven-scent.html?c=y&page=1