Les milieux agronomiques européens et la formation d’un modèle agricole italien au XIXe siècle

European agronomic milieux and the formation of an Italian agricultural model in the nineteenth century. This paper discusses the process of renewal in Italian agronomic knowledge by the circulation of know-how from the European countryside. The international network formed by agronomists determines the creation of national agronomic knowledge and how some institutions develop it further. An Italian agricultural model is shaped by the admixture of scientific research and empirical practices. Results of experiments and studies are shared at congresses and published together with the notes of innovations developed in transalpine countries. At the beginning, diffusion of modern agronomic know-how was limited by the small number of aristocrats and rich bourgeois in the network. After the Italian unification, the network expanded with the support of public institutions and the creation of new agricultural schools, consortia, and agricultural cooperatives. This pattern allowed production and productivity in the Italian countryside to increase.