Summa de Arithmetica (English Translation)

ElizaZ · Post by **ElizaZ** » February 20th, 2021, 7:03 am

I have noticed that LibriVox is making a concerted effort to record important historical works related to the sciences and would like to suggest a work that encompasses a branch of study that appears to have been overlooked so far.

In 1494 Luca Pacioli published Summa de Arithmetica. It was a math reference and included sections on math used in painting (Leonardo da Vinci was apparently a big fan of this section), math of gambling, math of magic tricks, and double entry bookkeeping.

Unfortunately I do not believe an English translation of the entire book exists (though it is available in the original Italian). However the chapters on bookkeeping became an instant success and are considered to be the start of modern accounting, so several English translations of just that section have been published including this one from 1914. https://archive.org/details/ancientdoubleent00geijuoft/page/34/mode/2up

Summa de Arithmetica is probably considered the most important book in the history of accounting. So long story short: I didn’t put this in the title for fear everyone would skip this post out of anticipatory boredom

, but I would like to suggest recording an accounting book.

Wikipedia summary: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_de_arithmetica

Post by **Leni** » February 22nd, 2021, 7:19 pm

That looks quite interesting actually. Maybe Availle will be interested too

It would probably take someone with knowledge to make a few things clear, such as abbreviations. But not being an accountant myself, the text seemed pretty legible.

Post by **Availle** » February 22nd, 2021, 7:57 pm

I have a reputation, don't I?

This one is a collection of several books on accounting, with facsimiles of the original manuscripts and translations, some of which are only partial. I agree that this would need careful thought as to abbreviations and such, to be consistent at least within each "book" of the text. Other than that, it seems easy enough to read, and with all the images maybe around 100 pages or so in total.

Would make a good solo I think, for people with special interests.