De Raphaeli: Venetian double entry bookkeeping in 1475

This book presents a transcription and critical translation into English of the earliest known instructional manual on double entry bookkeeping: "La Riegola de Libro" (The Rules of Bookkeeping). Authored by Marino de Raphaeli in medieval Venetian dialect, "La Riegola de Libro" is in manuscript form written down from dictation in 1475 by his student, Zuan de Domenego. After it was completed in or near Venice, it was bound together in one volume with a manuscript copy, prepared by de Raphaeli, of Benedetto Cotrugli’s "Libro de Larte dela Mercatura" (Book of the Art of Trade). It has remained so ever since.The manual is written in Venetian dialect and reveals a great deal about Venetian business and bookkeeping practice, including accounting for activities of which no contemporary business records have survived. The accounting it presents offers a complexity that is absent from any of the printed manuals of the next 80 years.The manual reveals a great deal about Venetian business and bookkeeping practice, including accounting for activities of which no contemporary business records have survived. The accounting it presents offers a complexity that is absent from any of the printed manuals of the next 80 years.