First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book summarises the Seminar held in Edinburgh in 1994 in the five hundredth year since the publication of Luca Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita. Its purpose is simple but relevant to every accountant. It revisits some fundamentals that lay behind Pacioli's decision to write his Summa, and examines whether the accounting framework in which we work today has overlooked basic issues because of its continued focus on development of the existing financial accounting model. It analyses Pacioli's legacy from several different perspectives, deliberately choosing to do so in ways that addressed considerations that his work reflected, examining the nature and characteristics of the bridge between academic analysis and insight on the one hand and practical application on the other. It also looks at the dominant influences in the evolution of accountancy for managing stewardship and for reporting of that stewardship. By doing so, it attempts to identify influences that had been less pressing and so had been ignored or overlooked, and also considers how changing technology has affected the way we manage the accountancy process.

In recent years there has been increasing interest shown in the history and development of accounting practices; accounting records are an important source of historical data, and they can also provide evidence of varied organizational structures and systems of management control. This volume brings together published work by the major British scholars in the field, and is intended as a contribution to accounting scholarship on the 500th anniversary of Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica (1494). Contributions are grouped under the following headings: The Ancient World; Before Double Entry; Corporate Accounting; Local Government Accounting; Cost and Management Accounting; Accounting Theory; and Accounting in Context. Contributors: W. T. Baxter, S. Burchell, C. D. B. Clubb, T. E. Cooke, J. R. Edwards, D. A. R. Forrester, J. Freear, J. J. Glynn, P. D. A. Harvey, A. G. Hopwood, P. Hudson, R. H. Jones, G. A. Lee, T. A. Lee, R. H. Macve, S. Marriner, M. Mepham, M. Mumford, C. J. Napier, E. Newell, C. W. Nobes, C. W. Noke, R. H. Parker, D. A. Postles, D. W. Rathbone, B. S. Yamey;This book is intended for accounting and business historians, and others interested in the evolution of accounting p