Emergenza della didattica della matematica nei primi giornali matematici italiani.

Italy acquired the status of a modern country in 1861. One of the problems to be faced was that of the construction of the national system of instruction. As for mathematics, while the community of mathematicians had already a long tradition of communication through Academies, Societies, private correspondence, and afterwards through journals, the community of educators (teachers, curriculum developers) was living its pioneering period. Neither journals dedicated to mathematics teaching nor books dealing with methodology of mathematics education were published. Most mathematical textbooks were translation of foreign works. In this context we note a growing interest for mathematics teaching on behalf of mathematicians: they participated in the political construction of the Italian system of education, translated foreign textbooks and wrote new ones. In this paper we look for signs of this interest in the journals of mathematical research (apart from journals of history), in order to collect information about prehistory of ‘didactics of mathematics’ in Italy. The expression ‘didactic of mathematics’ has to be intended in a broad sense: it may be revisiting elementary topics from an advanced standpoint, discussing methodological questions, studying national systems of instruction, designing teacher education programs, reflecting on the learning process.