Antica Ricevuta di Speziale Fiorentino di Cioccolata Cacao e Cannella

Ancient eighteenth-century receipt of Florentine apothecary for purchased chocolate, cacao and cinnamon.
The apothecary receipts, especially those containing these articles, are very rare. In the eighteenth century, chocolate spread among the nobility and the upper middle class of Europe, first consumed liquidly and later also in its solid form, giving rise to high confectionery.
Subject of religious disputes, which saw the rigid Spanish church oppose the drink because it claimed that it interrupted the fast, while the Jesuits based on the principle liquid circumvented this rule, not accompanying it to solid foods.
In Florence chocolate spread from the second half of the seventeenth century thanks to Francesco Redi, an apothecary physician at the court of Cosimo de 'Medici, who enjoyed experimenting with this drink.
In one of his famous writings we find: "... the court of Spain was the first in Europe to receive such use. And indeed in Spain we treat the chocolate of all perfection; but perfection in our times was in the Corte di Toscana added a not only of more exquisite kindness, due to the novelty of the European Ingredients, having found a way to introduce you to the fresh rinds of the Cedars, and the very sweet smell of jasmine, which mixed with cinnamon, with vanilla, with amber ... makes a wonderful feeling to those who take delight in chocolate..."