External reading
About this resource
- Publisher
- Library of Congress
- Use
- A curated research guide to early accounting history and surviving editions or reproductions; not a claim that Pacioli invented double-entry bookkeeping.
- Version
- Page reviewed 2026
- Relevant parts
- Early History to 17th Century; Luca Pacioli and the 1494 Summa
- Link checked
- Aug 7, 2026
This guide supports two carefully bounded facts: Luca Pacioli published the Summa de arithmetica in Venice in 1494, and its bookkeeping section became an important printed description of practices that already existed. It is used here for orientation and source discovery, not to turn a convenient “father of accounting” label into an invention claim.