The Institute was established in 1886, in keeping with the last will of Angelo Vegni, who left his estate to be used to found an Agricultural Secondary School.

The school, which was endowed from the beginning with a boarding school and an experimental farm, is today an important reference point for the training of agricultural operators and professionals in this field. Within the European context, the Institute is outstanding for its laboratories of science, chemistry, informatics, animal husbandry and mechanical technologies. Its also possesses an important collection of scientific instruments of historical interest coming from the Physics Cabinet, noteworthy among which are antique topographical instruments (an OMS tachymeter from the mid-twentieth century, a gradienter marked "Scuola Scientifica Viennese Perugia", squares and other items) and apparatus for physics experiments dating from the early 20th century (Magdeburgo hemispheres, a spark gap, and conductors of various kinds). The collection also includes the clockworks for a bell-tower constructed by the Officine Galileo of Florence, and a collection of bones from domestic animals.