Benedikt Kotruljević (Cotrugli)'s accounting treatise
Tratado de contabilidad de Benedikt Kotruljević (Cotrugli)
- Date
- 1458 (publicado 1573) · confidence medium
- Place
- Naples, Campania, Italy
- Credited to
- Benedikt Kotruljević (Benedetto Cotrugli), Ragusan merchant
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
His book Della mercatura et del mercante perfetto, written in Naples in 1458, contains the oldest known written description of double-entry bookkeeping with ledger and journal. It was published in 1573, long after Pacioli's treatise.
Double entry was already applied in Genoa around 1340. Cotrugli (1458 manuscript) describes it before Pacioli (1494), but the book was only published in 1573, so its real influence is disputed. Pacioli remains the disseminator.
What it led to
- recognition of Cotrugli as a pioneer of accounting theory
- an example of how mercantile technique circulated between Dubrovnik, Naples and Venice