Legacy of first arithmetic textbooks in Croatia on today’s mathematics teaching

Abstract

The first books in Croatia, that teach the reader the basics of arithmetic, were written in the middle of the 18th century. Arithmetica Horvatszka (1758), written by Mihajlo Šilobold, and Aritmetika u slavni jezik Ilirski (1766) by Mate Zoričić were published in separate parts of Croatia; the former was published in the part of Croatia that was under Austro-Hungarian rule and the latter under the Venetian rule. Although they were not directly intended for school work, the authors wanted to teach the general population the basics of numbers and arithmetic through these books. This paper provides a brief analysis of the calculation methods from that time, as well as the forms of instructions the authors gave to their readers.