Fabio Besta: accounting thinker and accounting history pioneer

Abstract

This paper seeks to reveal Fabio Besta (1845–1922) as an important accounting thinker. It attempts to underline his influence on accounting theory, and highlight his major impact on the development of accounting history knowledge. It is shown that Besta, through his accounting thought, founded on a value-based theory and an equity-centred accounting system (sistema patrimoniale), facilitated the shift from a personalistic to a non-personalistic, or materialistic, theory of accounts. It is suggested that Besta's La Ragioneria is a milestone in accounting history. In this work he anticipated the adoption of a comparative international approach to accounting history research, particularly in relation to the exploration of pre-Pacioli double-entry bookkeeping. His work was also important to the dissemination of knowledge about early double-entry bookkeeping practices, and thereby encouraged further investigations by the accounting history community.

Keywords:

• Fabio Besta
• pre-Pacioli double-entry bookkeeping
• accounting theory
• Italy

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the constructive comments offered by the two anonymous referees and the editor. The authors also received helpful suggestions from participants at the Thirteenth World Congress of Accounting Historians, Newcastle, July 2012.

Notes

The main sources of information about Besta's life are: Alfieri (1922), Amaduzzi (2001, 199), Antoni (1970, 3), Ceccherelli (1933), D'Alvise (1923), Perrone (1986, 55), Mola (1995), Zappa (1935).

La Ragioneria comprises three volumes: Volume I (1891), contains an Introduction, Book I (three chapters), Book II (eight chapters); Volume II (1909), contains Book III (four chapters), Book IV (five chapters), Book V (three chapters), Book VI (five chapters), Book VII (four chapters); Volume III (1916) contains Book VIII (four chapters), Book IX (10 chapters), Book X (two chapters), Book XI (six chapters), Book XII (six chapters). The quotations in this paper are taken from the second edition of La Ragioneria: Volume 1 (1909), Volume II (1920), Volume III (1922).

It should be noted that the content of the Venetian Archives extends well beyond these well-known sources for accounting historians. In particular, the archive contains important papers relating to accounting in more recent times (Sargiacomo, Servalli, and Carnegie 2012).

In this period a number of works on accounting history were published, often stimulated by competitions arranged by scientific academies. Examples include works by Bariola (1897) and Luchini (1898) that were presented at a competition arranged by the Società Storica Lombarda (Lombard Historical Society) and won by Bariola.

The existence of the Commune of Genova cartularies – as well as of the archival material relating to the Banco di S. Giorgio (Bank of St. George) and the Casa di S. Giorgio (Office of St. George) – had originally been brought to wider attention (as acknowledged by Besta) by Cornelio Desimoni, the Director of the Genova Archives, during a regional conference in 1865. Some brief excerpts subsequently appeared in Lanfranchi (1891, who quoted Desimoni), Sieveking (1898, who referred to evidence presented by Desimoni 1865), Brambilla (1901), Row Fogo (in Brown 1905, who also quoted Brambilla 1901), and Bagliano (1911). See also Besta (1922, 273–74, note 1).

Importantly, Martinelli (1983) also later analysed ‘The Ledger of Cristianus Lomellinus and Dominicus De Garibaldo, Stewards of the city of Genoa (1340–41)’.

Row Fogo (in Brown 1905, 100 et seq.) had previously published some excerpts of the Soranzo Brothers book which, according to Besta (1922, 304), had been sent to Richard Brown by the Director of the Venice Archive.