ABSTRACT
Beginning at the end of the twelfth century, theologians with knowledge of Galenic-Arabic and Aristotelian olfactory theory imported current philosophical and medical opinions into theology, complicating the spiritual sense of smell. Good and bad spiritual fragrances gained the power to nourish or harm the soul, just as physical good and bad odors healed or harmed the spirits. Spiritual odor began to be described metaphorically with the language of medicine and complexion. From the thirteenth century on, aspects of medical thought were purposefully included in discussions of spiritual odors or the spiritual nose in preaching manuals, including both exempla collections and sermons, and especially those by Dominican authors. By including such information in preaching manuals, the authors communicated advanced scholastic knowledge to lay audiences. The popular absorption of this combined theological and philosophical thought about the sense of smell is traceable in vernacular literature, especially in works of mysticism by authors such as Catherine of Siena and Birgitta of Sweden. Just as in knowledge of physical olfactory theory, most medieval Europeans likely understood some aspects of scholastic theology regarding the sense of smell.
