Page 41 - @ccess3_Readers Book

Chocolate was the first of the three to enter
the pharmaceutical annals in Europe via a medical essay
published in Madrid in 1631: Curioso tratado de la
naturaleza y calidad del chocolate by Antonio Colmenero
de Ledesma. Colmenero’s short treatise dates from the era
when Spain was the main importer of chocolate. Spain had
occupied the Aztec territories since the time of Cortés in the
1540s — the first Spanish-language description of chocolate
dates from 1552 — whereas the British and French were only
beginning to establish a colonial presence in the Caribbean
and South America during the 1620s and 30s. Having
acquired a degree in medicine and served a Jesuit mission
in the colonies, Colmenero was as close as one could come
to a European expert on the pharmaceutical qualities
of the cacao bean. Classified as medical literature in libraries
today, Colmenero’s work introduced chocolate to Europe
as a drug by appealing to the science of the humors, or
essential bodily fluids.

Both England and France imported
Colmenero’s wisdom along with the cacao
beans they sourced from the American
colonies and each country exploited it as
a powerful marketing tool. The very first
translation of the Tratado was published in
English by army captain James Wadsworth,
whose travels to Spain had introduced him
to the wonders of the cacao beverage: A
Curious Treatise of The Nature and Quality
of Chocolate. Written in Spanish by Antonio Colmenero,
Doctor in Physicke and Chirurgery. Put into English by Don
Diego de Vades-forte (1640). Wadsworth published it under
the feisty pseudonym Don Diego de Vades-forte, which may
well be a metaphor for the drink: vādēs forte is Latin for “you
will go” and “strong one.” Whatever the source of the name,
the Latin offers the modern reader a good sense of the
reputation with which chocolate entered British culture.

Reader's Book 39