Not sure if you managed to find already since this is an old thread, but you can find a Master's Thesis in National University of Singapore talking about this here. The thesis comes from a history and social sciences perspective, so it might be a little bit biased in trying to push the idea that perceptions of Durian was influenced by sociocultural circumstances. In chapters 2 and 3 you can find the records being compiled and translated.

Since before the West known anything about the East, the East is said to be an object of fascination. But exploration only resumed in 13th century in order to meet demands of early forms of elite consumerism. Even then there already were talks of the smell of the durian, but the records at this early stages made the durian "an exotically fragrant stink". The first encounter Europeans had was in Portugese Malacca (even before its conquering in 1511), where a record in 1448 of an Italian merchant described "the taste varies, like that of cheese" and also said to be sweeter and more scented than Blancmange. Europeans actually liked the fruit, and records around this time even seem to not have mentioned anything about the smell.

Though, my personal opinion is that we don't know whether durian variety or even just the change of how the durian was supposed to look and taste might have affected these accounts. Take note that the aforementioned Italian merchant described the Durian to be "the size of a cucumber". How big a cucumber in that period I don't know, but the modern Durian is a pretty big fruit.

Between mid 17th and early 19th century it seems like the smell started to be in more and more records, being compared to human excrement, rotten food, onions, but vanishes upon eating.

In the 19th and 20th century, dining was an important part of elite social life, and where many exotic tastes, ingredients, delicacies are adapted to their palates (British curry being an example). Tropical fruits were typically seen in grand dinner parties as a grand finale, but Durian isn't to be seen anywhere in these parties, as if it is a fruit only meant to be enjoyed in secret pleasure. Europeans who are publicly seen to be enjoying the Durian was seen as uncivilized, if we were to judge just based on the records.

But remember that the records from each of these periods are from people of different background. The first records in the 15th century are merchants, and the ones in the mid 17th to early 19th century are that of travelers. These are the people who are likely to be more perceptive or used to the differences in cultures, and might even be considered more adventurous eaters. In contrast the ones in 19th century to 20th century are those of the Colonial elites.

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