The Italian origins of FAO and Paul Otlet

Abstract

Nowadays the strategic role of international organizations, which manage and provide information systems and library services in the agricultural domain, is universally recognized. This paper focuses on the origin of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by presenting a critical edition of the Rapport by Paul Otlet to the marquis Cappelli, président de l’Institut International d’Agricolture (Otlet, 1911) that includes original documents and outlines the first steps taken by the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA), founded in Rome in 1905. The critical edition starts from the original report, preserved in the archival funds of David Lubin, owned by FAO archive and is a collation of IIA’s memorandums preserved in the National Library of Rome, and the copious correspondence, between Otlet and Oscar Bolle, the delegate of Belgium, courteously made available by the Mundaneum.