BENEDIKT KOTRULJEVIC (BENEDETTO COTRUGLI) OF DUBROVNIK ON DOUBLE ENTRY BOOKKEEPING IN THE YEAR 1458 - BEFORE L. PACIOLI

Buzadzic, M./Habek, M./Stipetic, V.

The intention of this paper is to call the attention to the work of the Dubrovnik citizen Benedikt Kotruljevic (Italian version being Benedetto Cotrugli Raguseo), to have written, prior to Luca Pacioli, in 1458, "The Book on the Art of Trading" in which, among other things, he presented the the principles and methods of double entry bookkeeping as a necessary attribute of trade activity. As the work of B. Kotruljevic is poorly known we offer the survey of B. Kotruljevic's works, his economic postulates and it was the text and analysis of his views on double entry bookkeeping (as written in 1458, in Italian, with the parallel English translation).

Benedikt Kotruljevic (Dubrovnik 1416 - Aquila 1469) was a merchant by profession, a humanist by education, a scientist by vocation and a diplomat by invitation (in the service of Aragon kings). He travelled a lot all over the Mediterranean, was polyglot, of keen observing and lucid conclusions, who polished his conclusions in the discussions with humanists of the Court of Naples in which he lived for some fifteen years..

In his book, Kotruljevic was writing "On Orderly Keeping the Business Records. The authors analyze that chapter on the base of newly found manuscripts of his "Book on the Art of Trade" finding there considerably more extensively and the more in detail elaborated system of double entry bookkeeping, than presented in the contents of the book printed (in 1573).

Kotruljevic set forth theoretical postulations and rules for keeping business records according to the double entry principle to be valid also nowadays. He applied then the procedures giving suggestions for the organization of business records keeping by a merchant.

Correspondence Address: Miroslav Buzadzic, Udruga "Hrvatski racunovodja", Vlaska 68, Zagreb 10000, Croatia; Phone: 00 385 1 4553 525, Fax: 00 385 1 46 17 011.

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This paper was presented at the 21st EAA Congress in Antwerp in April 1998.

The full paper is available by contacting the author using the correspondence details given above.