Mathematics syllabuses for italian technical secondary schools of 1871: didactic impacts of a futuristic project

The syllabuses of mathematics for Italian technical secondary schools issued by the Minister of Agriculture, Stefano Castagnola (1825-1891), in October 1871 represent a significant milestone in the history of the teaching of this subject. These syllabuses, in particular those of the physics-mathematics section, were exceptional both in view of the vast extent and modernity of the subjects proposed and for the great innovation represented by the curriculum of geometry which, for the first time, systematically had recourse to the projective methods created by mathematicians in the previous centuries, developed and perfected in the first half of the 19th century, and which subsequently became the foundation of a number of the engineer’s sciences such as graphic calculus and graphic statics.
Some studies have recently been dedicated to this particular stage in the history of teaching mathematics in Italy and the efforts in the educational field by the main author of curricula – the mathematician Luigi Cremona (1830-1903). However, little light has been shed on the actual effects of these syllabuses and on the reasons that led to their being scaled down in the following years, which are the issues forming the main subject of this study.