A hyperbolic integro-differential equation is considered, as a model problem, where the convolution kernel is assumed to be either smooth or no worse than weakly singular. Well-posedness of the problem is studied in the context of semigroup of linear operators, and regularity of any order is proved for smooth kernels. A continuous space-time finite element method of order one is formulated for the problem. Stability of the discrete dual problem is proved, that is used to obtain optimal order a priori estimates via duality arguments. The theory is illustrated by an example
