The Gentile di Puglia is a breed of domestic sheep indigenous to southern Italy.
[4] The Gentile di Puglia derives from cross-breeding local ewes with Merino rams brought from Spain, first by Alfonso V of Aragon in the fifteenth century, and later, repeatedly, by the Bourbon kings of Naples, who had extensive estates near Foggia.
In the nineteenth century, after the Unification of Italy, there was cross-breeding with imported French Rambouillet and German Merinolandschaf animals, with the aim of further improving the quality of the wool.
[4] The collapse of the wool trade in the later twentieth century caused a sharp fall in number of the breed.
As a result, a controlled cross-breeding and selection programme was started, which led to the creation of the Trimeticcia di Segezia breed.