The market for Luca Pacioli's Summa Arithmetica. (Report)

Sangster, A., Stoner, G.N. and McCarthy, P. (2008) The market for Luca Pacioli's Summa Arithmetica. (Report). Accounting Historians Journal, 35(1), pp. 111-134.

Abstract

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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Stoner, Professor Greg
• Authors: Sangster, A., Stoner, G.N., and McCarthy, P.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
• Journal Name: Accounting Historians Journal
• Publisher: Academy of Accounting Historians
• ISSN: 0148-4184