author

Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma

A 17th-century Spanish physician and surgeon, he is best remembered for writing one of the earliest books in Spanish devoted to chocolate. His work treats cacao not just as a drink, but as a subject of medicine, trade, and curiosity in the early modern world.

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 doctor and surgeon active in the 17th century. He wrote on medical subjects, but his name is most often linked to Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del Chocolate, published in Madrid in 1631.

That book helped make him notable far beyond Spain. It is often described as one of the earliest Spanish treatises on chocolate, exploring its nature, preparation, and supposed health effects at a time when cacao was still relatively new to many European readers. An English version, Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke, later introduced his ideas to readers in London.

Today, he is remembered less as a literary figure in the modern sense than as an early medical writer whose work captured a moment when chocolate was moving from the Americas into European daily life. For listeners interested in the history of food, medicine, and ideas, his writing offers a vivid glimpse of that transition.