Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story of Antica Erboristeria e Spezieria San Simone stretches back to 1221, when Dominican friars arrived in Florence and began cultivating medicinal herbs in their convent gardens. This monastic tradition of botanical healing laid the groundwork for what would become one of Florence's oldest herbal pharmacies. The shop itself was founded in the early 18th century near the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, originally within the walls of the Oblate Convent, where nuns tended to the sick using plants grown in the convent grounds. For more than three centuries, it operated primarily as an erboristeria, a place where herbal medicine, tisanes, and natural remedies were prepared by hand. The transition into fragrance came later. In the 1990s, under the guidance of current owner Dr. Fernanda Russo, perfume production was formally added to the shop's repertoire, building on centuries of accumulated botanical knowledge rather than starting from scratch. Russo recognized that the shop's deep archive of herbal preparations and essential oil expertise offered a ready foundation for fine fragrance creation. Today the bottega sits on Via Ghibellina in central Florence, part perfume house and part living museum. Visitors encounter the same shelves of dried herbs and amber bottles that have defined the space for generations, now joined by a lineup of eaux de parfum that draw directly on that herbalist lineage. The shop remains a working link between Florence's monastic past and its contemporary craft scene. San Simone approaches fragrance as an extension of herbalism rather than a departure from it. The philosophy is grounded in the conviction that perfume and medicine share a common root: the careful study of plants and their properties. Each composition reflects the shop's longstanding relationship with botanicals used historically for therapeutic purposes, translated into a modern olfactory vocabulary. What sets the house apart is this refusal to separate healing and scenting. Where many fragrance brands begin with a concept and source materials to match, San Simone begins with plants already familiar to its herbalists, then builds compositions around their natural affinities. The result is a collection that feels less constructed and more cultivated, with each scent carrying the imprint of Tuscan soil and centuries of accumulated plant knowledge. The commitment to natural ingredients runs throughout the production process. Dr. Fernanda Russo has spoken about the shop's dedication to maintaining the integrity of its formulations, favoring raw materials that reflect the same quality standards applied to its traditional remedies. This herbalist-first mindset gives the collection a coherence rarely found in commercial fragrance houses: every bottle carries the signature of a working apothecary.