Bevanda asiatica: Scholarly Exchange between the Ottomans and Europeans on Coffee

Abstract

Focusing on Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli’s neglected treatise, Bevanda asiatica (1685), this article explores knowledge exchanges between the Ottomans and Europeans in the late seventeenth century. Bevanda asiatica was based on Hezarfenn Hüseyin’s encyclopedic entry on coffee as well as on Marsigli’s own experiences both as a naturalist and as a slave-cook in Ottoman lands. Marsigli stated that Hezarfenn’s empirically driven depiction of the coffee plant was “the most original source” on coffee. By analyzing how and why Marsigli selected Hezarfenn’s text, this article sheds light onto the practices of cross-cultural knowledge exchanges in the early modernity.