In 1869, at the ancient Abbey of Vallombrosa, founded at the beginning of the 11th century and abandoned following the abolition of monastic orders, the Royal Institute of Forestry was established. It was the first forestry school in Italy.
In 1913, the Institute moved to Florence in the Grand-duke building at the Cascine grounds. The Vallombrosa premises remained the reference point for summer field exercises.
It will be necessary to wait until 1924 to see the merger of the National Forestry Institute with the Agricultural School of Pisa, which defined the creation of the Royal Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Florence.
The Vallombrosa Institute of Forestry and the National Higher School of Florence have given our country the first masters in the science of forestry, contributing to the creation of an Italian forestry conscience. Thanks to its director, Adolfo Di Bérenger (1815-1895) the library of the school of Vallombrosa was endowed with the most important foreign and Italian works for the study of the forestry sciences.
