Alberto Ceccherelli (1885–1958): pioneer in the history of accounting practice and leader in international dissemination

Abstract

This paper seeks to reveal Alberto Ceccherelli (1885–1958), a student of the Italian accounting scholar Fabio Besta, as an important pioneer in the history of accounting practice. Ceccherelli based his accounting history research programme on the thorough review of the surviving business records of medieval Tuscan firms and the critical investigation of the origins of accounting systems, balance sheets and early cost-accounting methods and records. This paper also illuminates his leading role in the dissemination of international accounting history through his works, and especially his seminal and widely referenced publication, I libri di mercatura della Banca Medici e l'applicazione della partita doppia a Firenze nel secolo decimoquarto [Merchant Books of the Medici Bank, and Double-Entry Bookkeeping in Florence at the Beginning of the 14th Century].

Keywords:

• Alberto Ceccherelli
• history of accounting practice
• double-entry bookkeeping
• Tuscan medieval firms
• Banca Medici
• international dissemination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.