The Development of Soil Science in Umbria

This chapter describes the development of soil science in Umbria. After a brief introduction on the birth of Agricultural Geology and its integration into the courses of the Royal Experimental Institute of Agriculture in Perugia, the academic and scientific activity of the first scholars who dealt with Agricultural Geology in the first quarter of the last century is outlined. This is followed by a discussion of the development of pedological studies and the main results obtained by later pedologists. In particular, reference is made to the work done at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Perugia in the field of pedology by Paolo Principi, Cesare Lippi-Boncambi, and Celso Giovagnotti, and in the field of soil chemistry by, among others, Luigi Marimpietri, Alberto Malquori, Giovanni Petrosini, and Mario Businelli. The chapter concludes with a brief overview on the actual settings of the pedology and agricultural chemistry research units and future developments of soil studies in Umbria.