Among the papers of Santa Maria in Traspontina, recently inventoried by Jacopo De Santis in the book "Santa Maria in Traspontina, La vita di una comunità carmelitana attraverso le carte d'archivio", several documents attest that during the 18th century at the same Roman convent, at that time the seat of the general curia of the Carmelites, chocolate bars were produced: this is evidenced by the correspondence preserved in our archives, with which the friars of other convents and various personalities of the time requested that this delicacy be sent to them.
In particular, in a correspondence of seventeen letters dated to the year 1758, the former prior general of the Carmelites, Luigi Laghi, of the Romagnola Province, requested that an order of chocolate, of which he must have been rather gluttonous, be delivered to him in the convent of Forli, reporting - in a funny way - that he made habitual use of it, because, according to him, it helped him to counteract shortness of breath . ... and other ailments: "I continue to suffer every morning the usual tightness of the chest and difficulty in breathing, but having taken chocolate, which causes me some flati, I remain free" (April 13, 1758).
Father Laghi had a large supply of this portentous remedy, as we read in another of his letters, "For chocolate there is time until you make ours, for I still have it for six and more months" (Sept. 7, 1758).
(This article first appeared in ABIGOC – November 21, 2023)
The book can be purchased at the online bookstore of the publisher Edizioni Carmelitane.
Jacopo De SantisSanta Maria in Traspontina La vita di una comunità carmelitana attraverso le carte d'archivio
