Old pear varieties in Northern Italy

The largest collection of Italian pear fruit models (1700 pieces) can be found at the Department of Vegetable Production of the University of Milan, in Italy, most of which were modelled and moulded in the second half of the nineteenth century by the ingenious artist and pomologist, Francesco Garnier Valletti. As many as 309 of these are models of different pear cultivars, with 231 models from different sources. Approximately 500 pear cultivars are represented. This collection shows the great number of pear cultivars grown in Northern Italy 150 years ago. In the same period, Burdin Nurseries published a catalogue with more than 250 commercial pear cultivars and, in 1901, the pomologist Girolamo Molon grew more than 300 pear cultivars in the experimental field of the Royal High School of Agriculture in Milan. Nowadays, the number of pear cultivars commercially grown in Italy is very limited, as more than 70% of total annual pear yield is due to only 4 cultivars (Conference, Abbe Fetel, Beurre Bosc and Doyenne du Comice). The renewed interest in germplasm preservation has led public and private institutions to establish collections of old varieties, many of which are not identified or cannot be identified. One of these collections was established by the Lombardia Region at E.R.S.A.F. The comparison of the unknown fruits with the models of the Garnier Valletti collection, which reproduce not only the shape and colour, but also the size and the weight of the fruit, can be very useful for identifying ancient cultivars.