TY - JOUR
T1 - The market for Luca Pacioli’s Summa Arithmetica
AU - Sangster, Alan
AU - Stoner, Gregory N.
AU - McCarthy, Patricia
PY - 2008/1/1
Y1 - 2008/1/1
N2 - This paper looks at an aspect of Luca Pacioli and his Summa Arithmetica that has not previously been explored in detail – the market for which he wrote the book. In order to do so, it follows a path identified by two clues in the bookkeeping treatise as to the nature of this market that modern eyes, unaware of how life was in late 15th century Italy, have missed. After discussing the curriculum taught in schools at that time, this paper considers a range of possible markets for which the book may have been written. The paper concludes that it was written primarily for, and sold mainly to, merchants who used the book as a reference text, as a source of pleasure from the mathematical puzzles it contained, and as an aid for the education of their sons.
AB - This paper looks at an aspect of Luca Pacioli and his Summa Arithmetica that has not previously been explored in detail – the market for which he wrote the book. In order to do so, it follows a path identified by two clues in the bookkeeping treatise as to the nature of this market that modern eyes, unaware of how life was in late 15th century Italy, have missed. After discussing the curriculum taught in schools at that time, this paper considers a range of possible markets for which the book may have been written. The paper concludes that it was written primarily for, and sold mainly to, merchants who used the book as a reference text, as a source of pleasure from the mathematical puzzles it contained, and as an aid for the education of their sons.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978884597&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2308/0148-4184.35.1.111
DO - 10.2308/0148-4184.35.1.111
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84978884597
SN - 0148-4184
VL - 35
SP - 111
EP - 134
JO - Accounting Historians Journal
JF - Accounting Historians Journal
IS - 1
ER -