A proposito dell’istruzione professionale nella provincia di Palermo alla fine dell’Ottocento: l’Istituto Agrario Castelnuovo e la colonia agricola di San Martino delle Scale

This paper reports on a qualitative study of technical and vocational education, with a particular focus on agricultural education, in the province of Palermo during the second half of the nineteenth century. The study was carried out as part of the Research Project of Significant National Interest, ‘Literacy and Development in Southern Italy from Italian Unification to the Giolittian Era (1861–1914)’. After the unification of Italy, western Sicily did not give due attention to innovation in the field of agriculture, let alone in the field of agricultural education, due both to the obstructionism of the large landowners and to the slowness and superficiality of successive governments. Initially, therefore, vocational agricultural education was entrusted to paternalistic and philanthropic initiatives by organisations or private individuals, and it was not until 1885 that the Minister of Agriculture ordered every province to establish a practical agricultural school. In the province of Palermo, the presence of agricultural institutions was virtually non-existent; in this regard, a letter written in 1895 by the Prefect of Palermo to the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce and to Prime Minister Crispi provides valuable insight, denouncing the deplorable conditions in which Palermo’s agriculture found itself. Among the sources examined, those relating to two institutions in the province of Palermo are of particular interest: the Castelnuovo Agricultural Institute and the San Martino delle Scale agricultural colony. The former, founded in Palermo’s Conca d’Oro in 1847 by Carlo Cottone, Prince of Castelnuovo, became a leading centre for agricultural innovation in Italy during the post-unification period. Among the documents consulted, those relating to the educational activities carried out at the Institute reveal the identity, content, methods and key figures of agricultural education in Palermo towards the end of the nineteenth century. The monastery of San Martino delle Scale, situated in the Monreale area, had acquired an important cultural role during the Bourbon era, becoming a point of reference for the city of Palermo. The monastery was recognised for its educational vocation, which was directed above all towards providing vocational training for the most disadvantaged. Indeed, in 1863 the monastery founded an agricultural colony dedicated to the rehabilitation of wayward youths. Documents relating to the 1870s and 1880s – such as those recording the high number of pupils and several petitions from mothers hoping for their children’s admission to the colony – suggest the existence of a fully-fledged vocational school, which, however, was short-lived, ceasing operations in 1895. Various archival sources were consulted at the State Archives of Palermo, Gancia branch, at the Historical Archives of the Benedictine Abbey of San Martino (Catalogue of the manuscript collection: Ancient Collection and Historical Archives), and printed sources were consulted in various libraries.