A syllabus for the Fifties. Teaching computer science on the first Italian computers. Giovanni A. Cignoni* Fabio Gadducci** *Fondazione Galileo Galilei / Museo degli Strumenti per il Calcolo, Università di Pisa **Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Pisa Short abstract. The CEP project is the cradle for Italian computer science. Besides delivering the first machine produced in the country (Macchina Ridotta, 1957), it was the seed from which the future Course on Computer Science (1969, again a first for Italy) will develop. Indeed, since its inception the project managers understood the need of courses teaching the use and the possibilities of the newly built machines. This contribution will focus on the contents of the first courses taught in Pisa in 1957 and 1958, and the somehow surprising mix of theoretical informatics, practical applications and programming languages they contained. Long abstract. The earliest master degrees for computer science have been established by the mid- Sixties, with ample discussions on which should be the syllabi for their courses. At the same time, many teaching activities had already been established by the simple need of providing the reuired expertise for the machines built since the Forties. Concerning e.g. Italy, we know of the network established by Olivetti for allowing technicians to program and interact with its ELEA series. Less information is available e.g. for the courses taught at an academic level. At least for the early Italian computers, though, we are in a privileged position, having available both the original notes and the current reminiscences of the protagonists of these courses at the University of Pisa in the late Fifties. The CEP project is one of the founding myths of Italian computer science. Hosted by the University of Pisa, supported by the counties of Livorno, Lucca, and Pisa and sponsored financially and technically by Olivetti, in the years 1955-1961 it produced the first Italian computer, called Macchina Ridotta (MR, 1957) and on the basis of such an accomplishment it later delivered the long-running Calcolatrice Elettronica Pisana (the eponymous CEP, 1961). The project can be considered the seed from which the first Italian master degree on computer science (1969) will develop. Moreover, it implicitly contributed to the development of the first Italian transistored computer, one of the earliest in Europe: the ELEA 9003 by Olivetti. The most recent and accurate reconstruction so far of the CEP project is [1]. The original designers apparently undervalued the costs and required times for software development on their machines [1]. However, since the beginning they clearly understood the need of teaching the basics of programming, and its relevance in the spread of the soon-to-be-build machine. What was designed and tested in the project was to be immediately used for the benefit of the transfer of knowledge. Indeed, the activity report of July 1956 also documents the educational activities that were carried out during the first semester for a dozen of graduating engineering students. The 1956 course was held between March and May. It was split in a few modules, taught by the MR designers, according to their role in the project. While the engineers supported by Olivetti, Giuseppe Cecchini and Sergio Sibani, focussed on the electronic design, the physicists working for the University, Alfono Caracciolo and Elio Fabri, focussed on the architectural and programming aspects, respectively. Concerning the latter, we have an undated technical report containing the notes of the module, most likely the first written text devoted to teaching computer science in Italy [2]. Eight lessons, transcribed and published by Centro Studi Calcolatrici Elettroniche (CSCE), the managing body of the CEP project