The Author Luca Pacioli (1445 - 1517) was Chair of Mathematics at the University of Perugia in Italy. He was appointed by Pope Leo X in 1514 as Professor of Mathematics at Spienza University in Rome, a position of the highest ranking. Pacioli was a friend and an instructor of Leonardo da Vinci.
The Book: Luca Pacioli's 1494 Treatise on Double-Entry Bookkeeping entitled Particularis de computis et scripturis ( Details of Calculation and Recording ) is the first published book on present-day double-entry bookkeeping, a bestseller on the Gutenberg press at the time, which is still the foundation of 'the universal standard of accounting in the Western world' today.
"It is not surprising to find a t reatise on mercantile proceedings in a book on mathematics. At the time, mercantile arithmatic was an established part of mathematics, and its teachers were mathematicians."
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