In 1858, the engineer Lino de Pombo O’donnell (1797-1862), who was Mathematics teacher at Military College, published the first edition of Lessons of Arithmetic and Algebra. In this textbook emerging procedures of the determinants were explained by the author to solve linear system. The form that Pombo explained this topic was similar to Etienne Bézout (1730-1783).

Years later, the Mathematics teacher at the National University, Manuel Antonio Rueda (1858-1907), published many editions of a textbook of algebra, where finally in the ninth edition appeared the determinants. In 1919, the writer and Mathematics teacher, Victor E. Caro (1877-1944) added as an appendix (Elementary theory of determinants) to Rueda’s book, few pages where explained this topic following other authors.

The aim of this work is to make a general outline of the determinants at Colombian University, from Pombo to Rueda. We will analyze this topic in Colombian textbooks and its relations with the first European textbooks.