Egyptian, Greek and Roman literature all contain references to truffles in one form or another. Truffles have graced the tables of kings, tyrants and noblemen for centuries.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Medieval Catholic church largely banned the harvesting and consumption of the "devils fruit" and it fell out of popularity. Not until the 16th Century did the truffle once again begin to appear on banquet tables. During this Renaissance period, the Italian Catherine de' Medici is known to have first brought the delicacy to her new French King, and one hundred years late Louis XIV readily enjoyed them in his court.

Brillat-Savarin noted that the popularity, and supply, of truffles reached its height in the 19th Century. At that time, it was not fully understood how truffles grew and therefore they could only be found and harvested in nature. However, merchants aware of their popularity stimulated the market by paying high prices, and used the fastest transport available to bring them Paris, which was the central truffle marketplace of the time.

With a ready market came a desire to increase supply, and attention focused on artificial and systematic cultivation. Early steps toward this goal were trial and error, and (as is today) great secrecy surrounded the experiments. However, Gasped Chatin records a significant increase in truffle production between 1860 and 1890, which may indicate some success in cultivation. It is estimated that at the turn of the 19th century over 500 tons of Black Truffles were being harvested annually from France and Italy.

Today, while difficult to approximate the exact total production level given the historically fragmented, secretive and cash nature of the industry, it has been estimated that only 20 to 30 tons of Black Truffles are produced annually worldwide. Although there is some controversy surrounding the current worldwide production level, Piedmont Valley Truffles forecasts a true total market size of up to 80 tons per year - of which 30 to 40% are farm cultivated.

This decrease in production throughout the 20th century was greatly attributed to the increased harvesting of natural truffles with little direct cultivation, coupled with deforestation and forgotten traditions.

In the mid 1970's the first infected plants with Black Truffles were raised under controlled conditions in France and Italy; and the first truffles were harvested from these trees in 1977. This initial discovery began the continued upward movement of worldwide truffle production and spurred the early phases of a new industry.