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Starting from a reflection on Prehistory teaching in the Italian school, the article explores the possibility of proposing a gender approach since primary school. By bringing girls and boys closer to the sources, it is possible to provide a more varied and complex image of Prehistory with respect to classic textbooks, in order to making it more intelligible and accessible to them, while enhancing differences at the same time. The proposed materials are at times thought of as insights, in other cases they are seen as tools to deconstruct the manual.

In 2015, in order to commemorate the ninth centennial of the death of the Great Countess Matilda of Canossa, four sessions and a roundtable discussion were organized under the rubric Matilda 900. These sessions took place at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies (University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI) in the US and the Leeds International Medieval Congress (University of Leeds) in the UK. Papers were read by scholars from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, the UK and the USA. The Kalamazoo Congress is the world’s largest gathering of scholars of the Middle Ages, and, although a number of papers were read over the years, there had been no session devoted to Matilda in the previous thirty years, if ever. The Leeds Congress attracts more participants from European countries, but the sessions held at the 2015 conference were the first devoted to Matilda, as nearly as could be determined. Thus, a major goal of Matilda 900 was to ensure that the Great Countess’ ninth centennial did not pass without notice alongside the commemorations of Azincourt (1415), Magna Carta (1215) and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), events that are much better known in English-language scholarship. It is especially gratifying that scholars from Italy joined the sessions.