An attempt to interpret the historical dynamics of the Italian forest landscape has not yet been undertaken, while many local or thematic essays have been published. The reasons for this lack are many but justified by the difficulties of being able to represent all the complexity linked to some millennia of social and economic events that have deeply influenced the natural characteristics of the forests, to which is added the great diversity of environmental and socioeconomic conditions that characterize our peninsula. However, the time may have come to attempt a synthesis, albeit partial, for several reasons including the risk of seeing completely lost the knowledge of the fundamental contribution of the forest to the social and economic development of our country and the definition of important aspects of our landscape. Like the agricultural landscape, forests can be considered a man-made object, having been entirely shaped by human work in our country. In this sense, the volume intends to offer a contribution to the recognition of the forest as a product of centuries of human influence, no different from other elements of the Italian landscape.