Venice and Florence were the perfume capitals during the Renaissance. The formulas of old compositions were recovered, and perfume returned with force in Europe. The Medici and Doge courts in Venice were perfumed courts.

When Catherine de Medici, the great ambassador of perfume, left for France to marry King Henry II, her entourage included her private perfumer, Renato Bianco, who, upon his arrival in Paris, opened a very successful perfume shop, where it was rumoured that he made perfumes as well as poisons.