Benedetto cotrugli on double entry Bookkeeping

Abstract

: (Benedetto Cotrugli sulla contabilità in Partita Doppia) In 1458, a former internationalmerchant, Benedetto Cotrugli, wrote a 200-page manual on how to be a successful merchant: Librode Larte dela Mercatura (Book of the Art of Trade). It included a 5-page chapter on double entrybookkeeping, something never previously preserved in written form. The earliest known copy ofthis book dates from 1475. This paper provides an overview of the book and of Cotrugli; and itpresents new English and Italian translations of Cotrugli’s chapter on double entry bookkeeping.These differ from previous translations in that they are based solely on the earliest copy ofCotrugli’s book from 1475. The English translation is also the first to have been prepared by anaccountant enabling the description of entries in account books to be in the form Cotrugli intended.This is the first of two contributions made by this paper. The second is that it identifies Cotrugli’schapter as a first stage in the training of a bookkeeper, where a broad introduction to the subject islaid down as a foundation for further study or practical experience.