The Development of Soil Science in Tuscany

Concerning agronomical and forestry studies, Tuscany has an ancient tradition. Especially since the eighteenth century, and all along the century after, in this region, many institutions were born promoting the development of technical-scientific studies linked to soil and agriculture. The first Italian forestry school was instituted in Vallombrosa, province of Florence, in 1869, and the first agricultural faculty in the world was founded in Pisa in 1871. It is precisely in the scientific clusters of Florence and Pisa that, over time, the academic institutions and research centres of national interest that developed soil science were constituted. This chapter describes the history of this development, organizing it by themes and institutions involved. The first paragraph briefly examines the development of chemistry and soil biology in the universities and research centres of Pisa and Florence. Two paragraphs follow on the pedological school of Florence, trying to retrace the activity of Paolo Principi, his main initiator, along with his student Fiorenzo Mancini. It was Mancini who led the growth of many generations of pedologists who carried out their activity in Florence institutions and research centres or who became professors in other universities or undertook the profession. Two other paragraphs concern the University of Florence and the Soil Genesis, Classification, and Cartography Study Centre of CNR, which had a particularly intense activity during the period between the second half of the 1960s and the end of the 1990s. Another paragraph is focused on the Experimental Institute for Soil Study and Conservation of Florence, founded in 1952: a structure of the Ministry of Agriculture that was specifically dedicated to soil genesis and physical, chemical, and biological aspects, with applicational purposes and aiming to promote its conservation and protection. After a few words on the Overseas Agronomic Institute of Florence and on the University of Siena activities, the history of the Tuscany Region is described. Since its institution, in 1970, the region actively worked to advance regional soil knowledge, founding an internal group of experts and financing a series of projects that led to the realization, inter alia, of the database of Tuscan soils. The chapter is closed by a paragraph dedicated to the professional sector that had a remarkable development in the region.