Libr. XV: Cotrugli and de Raphaeli on business and bookkeeping in the Renaissance

This book presents facsimile reproductions of the two earliest known manuscripts on double entry bookkeeping. These have been bound together in one volume, "Libr. XV", currently held at the National Library of Malta. They both date from the third quarter of the 15th century, and both pre-date what was previously thought to have been the earliest known accounting text "Particularis de Computis et Scripturis" (Concerning Reckonings and Recordings) by Luca Pacioli, which was printed in Venice in 1494 as part of a compendium of mathematics. These two manuscripts provide us with an insight into how bookkeeping was first taught after the journal was introduced at the beginning of the 15th century. It reveals the form bookkeeping instruction took in the classroom and the topics that were deemed important for bookkeepers and merchants to know.