The actual birth of the cosmetological [1] literature took place in Venice. Indeed, due to its geographical location “at the doorstep of the Orient,” La Serenissima was a strategic
place to collect and study cosmetic substances from all over the world: ceruse, cinnabar, Himalayan musk, sandalwood from the Indies, Chinese camphor, East African and Arabian myrrh, saffron from the East, etc.
More generally, since Antiquity, the commercial relationships between the East and the West have contributed to maintain and diversify the exchanges of both raw materials and know-how.
