Luca Pacioli

Luca Bartolomes Pacioli, Italian mathematician, (1445-1517), is credited with the first publication of the 'Venetian method' of keeping accounts, now known as 'double-entry bookkeeping'. For this reason, some regard him as the founder of the field of accountancy.

His publications include the Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita an encylopaedic work on the state of the art in arithmetic, mathematics, and bookkeeping at the time.

He was a close friend of Leonardo da Vinci.

External links:

• Luca Pacioli: The Father of Accounting (http://acct.tamu.edu/smith/ethics/pacioli.htm)
• Full Bio of Pacioli (St.Andrews) (http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pacioli.html)
• Pacioli Resource site (http://www.suburbia.com.au/~pacioli/)
• Accounting, a Virtual History (http://www.acaus.org/history/hs-pac.html)