ncesco Morosini, city magistrate at Constantinople, reported to
the Senate that the Turks "drink a black water as hot as they can suffer
it, which is the infusion of a bean called _cavee_, which is said to
possess the virtue of stimulating mankind."

Dr. A. Couguet, in an Italian review, asserts that Europe's first cup of
coffee was sipped in Venice, toward the close of the sixteenth century.
He is of the opinion that the first berries were imported by Mocengio,
who was called the _pevere_, because he made a huge fortune trading in
spices and other specialties of the Orient.

In 1615 Pierre (Pietro) Delia Valle (1586-1652), the well known Italian
traveler and author of _Travels in India and Persia_, wrote a letter
from Constantinople to his friend Mario Schipano at Venice:

The Turks have a drink of black color, which during the summer is
very cooling, whereas in the winter it heats and warms the body,
remaining always the same beverage and not changing its substance.
They swallow it hot as it comes from the fire and they drink it in
long draughts, not at dinner time, but as a kind of dainty and
sipped slowly while talking with one's friends. One cannot find any
meetings among them where they drink it not.... With this drink,
which they call _cahue_, they divert themselves in their
conversations.... It is made with the grain or fruit of a certain
tree called _cahue_.... When I return I will bring some with me and
I will impart the knowledge to the Italians.

[Illustration: NOBILITY IN AN EARLY VENETIAN CAFFE

From the Grevembroch collection in the Museo Civico]

Della Valle's countrymen, however, were in a fair way to become well
acquainted with the beverage, for already (1615) it had been introduced
into Venice. At first it was used largely for medicinal purposes; and
high prices were charged for it. Vesling says of its use in Europe as a
medicine, "the first step it made from the cabinets of the curious, as
an exotic seed, being into the apothecaries' shops as a drug."

The first coffee house in Italy is said to have been opened in 1645, but
convincing confirmation is lacking. In the beginning, the beverage was
sold with other drinks by lemonade-venders. The Italian word
_aquacedratajo_ means one who sells lemonade and similar refreshments;
also one who sells coffee, chocolate, liquor, etc. Jardin says the
beverage was in general use throughout Italy in 1645