author

Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma

Best known today for an early and influential treatise on chocolate, this 17th-century Spanish physician wrote about food, health, and medicine at a time when chocolate was still a New World curiosity in Europe. His work offers a vivid glimpse into how science and everyday remedies once mixed together.

1 Audiobook

Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called The New Disease

Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called The New Disease

by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma

About the author

Born in Écija, in Andalusia, Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma was a Spanish physician and surgeon active in the early 17th century. He is remembered for medical writing that reflects the interests of his era, when learned medicine, diet, and practical healing were closely connected.

His best-known book is Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate, published in Madrid in 1631. Often described as one of the earliest Spanish treatises devoted to chocolate, it helped spread ideas about chocolate's preparation and supposed health benefits, and it later circulated in translation beyond Spain.

He also wrote Apología chirurgica, published in Seville in 1622. Though not widely known today outside specialists and readers curious about the history of medicine and food, his works remain valuable for showing how early modern writers understood the body, nourishment, and cure.