This is a survey of didactics of arithmetic education among Serbs since the first written documents. This firts part contains, as an introduction, a brief survey of global hystorical development of arithmetics. Then, the contents and ways of presenting arithmetics in the firts Serbian schools are described. Further, some examples are presented from the first books used in arithmetic teaching. The second part (scheduled for the following issue of ``Nastava matematike'' will be devoted to the development of arithmetic curricula among Serbs.