Luca Pacioli as One of the Greatest Men - Essay Example

Luca Pacioli Luca Pacioli was one of the greatest men who lived during Renaissance period and emerged into limelight due to his significant contribution in the field of accounting (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). Hence, changing the way people during then used to compute their financial arithmetic, which extends even to the current period. However, he remains to be among the least known historical icons despite numerous and significant contributions he made during his existence on earth (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012).

Luca Pacioli born in 1445, emanated from a poor background that made his future appear unpromising where he joined Franciscan monastery in Sansepulero before associating himself with a businessman (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). He loved mathematics and it is while working under this businessman as an apprentice left to become a mathematician scholar. In 1494, Luca Pacioli authored his book by the name (translated) Summa - “The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and proportionality” that prompted him to be a celebrity even to date (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012).

In this book, he critiqued the poor mode of instructing mathematics during his time besides devising new accounting concepts that are evident to the present. He was the first person to give a vivid description on double entry accounting alternatively referred as Venetian Method (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). This new technique utterly revolutionized economy and business besides prompting Luca Pacioli to be a celebrity (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). Since the time of authoring his book to date, numerous people in diverse fields and especially accounting refer Luca Pacioli as “The father of accounting” (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012).

This is because of incomparable contributions he made in this field regardless of his humble background. Consequently, Summa became one of the most read books in Italy besides being the first for publication by Gutenberg Press (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). The book’s content comprised of “book keeping methods” and knowledge on how to compute “Assets” and “Liabilities” that are evident to date (Hogg, Tilling, Edwards, Medlin & Hoggett, 2012). Hence, this prompted Luca to be an essential icon in the field of accounting because most of his aspects that are in use even after five centuries.

References Hogg, E., Tilling, M., Edwards, E., Medlin, J. & Hoggett, J. (2012). Financial Accounting, Google eBook. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.