Cacaosophy

(con't. from 6/20) To prove his translating trustworthiness, René Moreau decided to add “clarification with some annotations.” These annotations are quite extensive and show his respect for the knowledge of the doctors’ generations before him as well as the advancement in medical expertise. They also demonstrate that Moreau not only wanted to use the power of translation for the sake of conquest, but also for the pursuit of knowledge. However, to indulge the desires of the r

“This great pride that appears in all of their writings and among their familiar discourses; will lose itself in the sweetness & in the delicateness of our language, that they are constrained to receive with our Empire.” [Ce grand orgueil que paroist dans tous leurs escrits & parmy leurs discours familiers; va se perdre dans la douceur & dans la delicatesse de nostre langue, qu’ils sont contraints de recevoir avec nostre Empire.] –René Moreau As the first book about chocolat

With the same force as Lord Nelson’s ships at the Battle of Trafalgar, a once unknown pod fruit from the jungles of Central America emerged on the forefront of 17th-century Spanish medicine. The epic academic and scientific war waged between Seville’s Santiago de Valverde Turices and Madrid’s Antonio Colmenero brought out the full potential of cacao, with Colmenero’s treaty departing the battlefield victorious. Colmenero’s recognition of cacao as a health supplement was a rev

Among the best practices that passed to from Mayan to Aztec culture were ingenious growing methods particular to that geography, which the Maya had developed over centuries. Such effective and enormous crop-producing techniques were due in part to expansive (and advanced) irrigation techniques. In swampy regions an intricate canal system was made that allowed for far more irrigation than that of traditional chinapas (raised planting beds and fields). They would use human wast