Antonio Ruggeri

Leaf of the Ruggeri 140 vine stock, breeding year 1896.

Antonio Ruggeri (born October 15, 1859 in Messina , † February 11, 1915 in Spadafora , Province of Messina in the Sicily region ) was an important Italian vine grower . He is considered a pioneer of quality-oriented modern viticulture in Italy.

Live and act

Antonio Ruggeri was born in Messina on October 15, 1859, to Antonio Ruggeri and Carmela Fedele. Ruggeri began his career in 1880 as a delegato antifillosserico (phylloxera commissioner, officially appointed person with sovereign rights), in 1884 he was promoted to deputy head. From 1888 to 1889 he was an assistant in the care of antiflosseriche.

Ruggeri was entrusted from 1889 to 1895 with the management of the “Vivaio governativo di viti americane” ( State vine refining station for American vines ) of Vittoria in the province of Ragusa . It was there that Ruggeri began his twenty-year studies in the field of hybrid breeding in order to identify a number of hybrids adapted to the calcareous soils and the drought of Sicily as stressors and with resistance to pests and pests.

The European Culture vines ( Vitis vinifera ), which at that time stood on their own roots ( direct producer , ungrafted vines ) were from the introduced from America from the mid-19th century phylloxera infested. Phylloxera first appeared in Italy in 1879, in Valmadrera near Como . Just a year later it was discovered in Caltanissetta in Sicily.

Most of the rootstock vines used in Europe today are descendants of the three American wild species Vitis riparia , Vitis rupestris and Vitis berlandieri , crosses of the same or hybrids of American wild species with Vitis vinifera . Including Antonio Ruggeri began during his time in Vittoria a crossing series of Vitis berlandieri Resseguier N ° 2 x Vitis rupestris du Lot, no. 42, which it in 1896 on behalf of the Ministero dell'Agricoltura as director of the local state-owned nursery to Milazzo led . There he was responsible for graft production for the entire province of Messina . During his ten-year stay in Milazzo, in 1896, he identified his best-known rootstock, Ruggeri 140 , which is now mainly found in the Mediterranean region.

The breeding material produced together with his colleague Federico Paulsen from the State Rebveredlungsstation for American vines in Palermo comprised 14 crosses with 68 clones of special value (Paulsen and Ruggeri group), all of which were entered in the national list of varieties .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Tambor: The agrarian crisis in Italy and its influence on the Italian silk industry; the transition to protectionism in Italian trade policy (1870–1900). The industrial statistics from 1903. In: Silk construction and silk industry in Italy - their development from the foundation of the kingdom to the present , Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 1929
2. ↑ Massimo Tricamo: Antonio Ruggeri (1859-1915). scienziato dimenticato. (No longer available online.) Banco Populare S. Angelo, July 10, 2010, archived from the original on June 7, 2014 ; Retrieved November 17, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Bill Nesto, Frances Di Savino: The World of Sicilian Wine University of California Press, 2013, ISBN 0520266188
4. ↑ Vitigni Autoctoni siciliani patrimonio, valorizzare there. Progetto multidisciplinare in Sicilia. (No longer available online.) In: www.agrinnovazione.regione.sicilia.it. “L'Informatore Agrario”, p. 36 , archived from the original on March 10, 2010 ; accessed on November 17, 2013 (13/2006). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.