Enlisting accounting history in the contest between competing visions of accounting systems: Tommaso Zerbi and the origin of double-entry bookkeeping

Abstract

Biographical research has attracted a significant level of interest from the accounting history community. Nevertheless, most of these studies are focused on documenting the life and work of renowned accounting scholars and practitioners. This study seeks to investigate the work of an author who is yet to attract the attention of the international community, Tommaso Zerbi, in close connection with the social and academic context in which this work was developed. The study emphasises the political and militant role that accounting history may play in academic communities by showing how accounting history research is not necessarily a value-free endeavour in the generation of new knowledge but can be enlisted in ensuring the success of a specific understanding of accounting systems in the context of academic struggles. Although mainly aiming at contributing to a national debate, the originality and value of Zerbi’s work ended up offering a significant contribution to the international debate on the origin of double-entry bookkeeping.