out their stability and convergence analysis, derive error bounds, and discuss the algorithmic aspects relative to their implementation. A sound balancing of theoretical analysis, description of algorithms and discussion of applications is our primary concern. Many kinds of problems are addressed: linear and nonlinear, steady and time-dependent, having either smooth or non-smooth solutions. Besides model equations, we consider a number of (initial-) boundary value problems of interest in several fields of applications. Part I is devoted to the description and analysis of general numerical methods for the discretization of partial differential equations.