Readings for farmers: Agrarian almanacs in Italy (eighteenth-twentieth centuries)

In this paper we study the evolution of agricultural almanacs in Italy between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. These are shown to have been a powerful vehicle for the transmission of ideas and knowledge at a time when the agriculture of the European continent was undergoing profound transformations. In Italy agricultural almanacs achieved a high level of diversification and sophistication. Over time their contents passed through a number of different phases. Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the main goal was to educate the 'good farmer'. Subsequently, in the second half of the nineteenth century, almanacs contributed to the spreading of scientific and technical information (fertilizers, machinery, pesticides) with the help of both advertisements and images. In the twentieth century, especially under Fascism, almanacs became a means of spreading political propaganda. The study identifies the characteristics of publications for the rural working classes, they changes they underwent and the way in which they were also the instruments of change.