Soil Science in Italy: From the Birth of the Unitarian State to the ISSS Foundation (1861–1924)

As elsewhere in Europe and North America, Italian soil science stemmed from other disciplines like geology, agronomy, chemistry, or botany, in the XIX century. In the same period, Italy was becoming a united nation. Thus, the consolidation of the scientific community was closely linked to the nationalistic and patriotic spirit that characterised the Italian intellectual class of the XIX century. Several early soil scientists were multifaceted personalities, intellectuals involved in politics, who actively participated in the process of unification and who had to cope with a divided community not only among disciplines but also among different heritages in terms of infrastructures and cultural environments. The early agricultural faculties, often linked to pre-existing scientific academies, and the agricultural technical institutes linked to the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade, were mostly devoted to the study of soil in terms of substratum for crop growth and plant nutrition and gave rise to some important soil chemistry schools. The faculties of natural sciences, with the prominent role of geologists, have been more involved in the study of the distribution of different soils and on their formation, giving rise to agro-geology. With some important exceptions, the two broad disciplinary fields remained separated until the beginning of the twentieth century when, facilitated by the first international soil congresses, Italian soil science started to move its first autonomous steps.