When eventually the ducal retinue leaves Madrid, it carries with it the farewell gifts with which the heir of Tuscany has been presented by the king and his mother. Among them, the one that most impresses the Italians would not seem exactly regal to us today: a box of chocolate bars. Next to them, gloves of amber, that is to say perfumed, one of the most appreciated Spanish products in Europe, and cordovan leathers, equally perfumed and treated with amber. Do not forget that chocolate was still far from being known by everybody. It is very likely that the duke and his courtiers had never tried it, so we can imagine how delighted they must have been. Without a doubt, it was the shipment of chocolate bars from Madrid to the Spanish queens of France, Ana and Maria Teresa of Austria, which made it the fashionable drink in Versailles, and from there it spread all over Europe. Let’s see the description that Magalotti makes: “The king’s gift consisted of two large boxes covered outside by red cowhide, adorned with rich silver nails, and inside lined with red satin. One of them was full of chocolate, six arrobas in pills made here, and many more in round loaves made in the Indies. In the other they had placed, inside several compartments, all the silver service for the use of that chocolate, with the greatest gift. The queen’s were other somewhat smaller boxes, covered in amber, gilded with gold, with all the nails, locks, plates and handles of enamelled gold. In one there were fifty cordovan leathers of amber, and in the middle an octagonal box covered with the aforementioned cordovan leathers and also covered with enamelled gold, filled with mouth pads. In the other there were a hundred pairs of amber gloves and a box, similar to the first, filled with fire pills. Each of these boxes was stuck in its other wooden, lined inside of cloth and outside of rubber.”
I gather that the “mouth pills” should be used to perfume the breath and the so called “fire pills” were perfumes intended to be burnt in a pierced brazier.
