Accountant Day is fast approaching.
November 10 is the day we accountants commemorate a top 25 event in the world’s history–publishing the first book on accounting.
On November 10, 1494, volume 2 of Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita (Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion) was published. It is in volume 2 of the Summa that Luca Pacioli included a description of the bookkeeping/accounting system of Venice. In honor of this contribution, Pacioli has carried for centuries the title of Father of Accounting.
This year, I’ve decided to exhibit a collection of pencil stubs.
Debit and credit – – David Albrecht
Hmm I couldn’t find another source to verify the exact date, but it’s still an amazing achievement in accounting/bookkeeping systems. Incredible to think that the basic techniques taught in accounting and bookkeeping courses and in use by professionals today were laid out in full more than 500 years ago. Gives a sense of history to the profession.
Will have to remember this event and celebrate it with the students in my accounting and bookkeeping courses next year 🙂
Dave — Although this celebration is very welcome, its scheduling presents a question that only a “numbers guy” could love: Namely, are you reporting the publication date of Fr. Pacioli’s great work under the Julian calendar, then in effect in 1494, or as adjusted to the Gregorian as adopted around Europe beginning in 1582?
There being no convergence between the two — a state of affairs now familiar in the increasingly sterile dialog between the IASB and the FASB, further confounded by the unhelpful dilly-dallying of the SEC — the question confronts both an important issue of professional judgment and also the clear challenge to articulate a preference as between competing methodologies.
Or else, as would also invoke choices forced upon the profession in its modern form, the approximately ten-day difference between the alternative dates of celebration might be observed as falling within a range making the choice “fairly stated in all material respects,” under whichever system chosen.
Unless, of course, the party is extended to last the whole ten days.
Best regards –
Jim
I had no idea. November 20 is the correct day? Unless I can mess with the numbers some, you’re for sure that next year we should celebrate on the 20th? I’ll have my intermediate accounting students work on the journal entries. Who knows what they’ll come up with.
The Pacioli Society at the Albers School of Business and Economics of Seattle University has video, conducts tours to Sansepolcro, and offers memorabilia. Contact co-founders Dr, William Weis (billweiss@seattleu.edu and Dr. David Tinius (dtinius@seattle.edu).
Leonardo da Vinci, a good friend of Pacioli, did illustrations for the Summa book.