The purpose of this article is to review the development of the mathematical literature by briefly tracing the history of mathematical communication leading to the founding of Mathematical Reviews in 1940. We touch on the formation of the accademies and the mathematical societies, and mention some of the early journals published by these groups. Finally we discuss the emergence of the mathematical reviewing journals. We do not discuss the growth of privately circulated unpublished literature, conference proceedings or the recent development of electronic form of communication in mathematics.