Abstract
Chocolate has early associations in the West with Spanish Catholic missionaries to America. From the middle of the sixteenth century, chocolate was employed in many useful ways, including economic capacities. However, till now, there have been no associations with the liquid drink and financial survival during and after periods of war or revolution. Yet during the Napoleonic years (1798–1814), chocolate was employed to support certain impoverished Italian clerics during the leanest years of the period. Leading one of these initiatives was Mauro Cappellari, the future Pope Gregory XVI (r. 1831–1846), who, along with others in his Camaldolese order, produced and retailed the chocolate throughout Italian lands. This article draws on Italian archival materials in Rome and Camaldoli in order to piece together this hitherto overlooked food enterprise. In addition, this article will also reveal much about the chocolate trade and production in Italian lands in general.
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