Abstract / Synopsis
In this article we describe the invention of double-entry bookkeeping (or partita doppiaas it was called in Italian), as a fertile intersection between mathematics and early commerce. We focus our attention on this seemingly simple technique that requires only minimal mathematical expertise, but whose discovery is clearly the result of a mathematical way of thinking, in order to make a conceptual point about the role of mathematics as the humus from which disciplines as different as operations research, computer science, and data science have evolved.
DOI
10.5642/jhummath.CDRW3514
Recommended Citation
Graziano Gentili, Luisa Simonutti & Daniele C. Struppa, "The Merchant and the Mathematician: Commerce and Accounting," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 13 Issue 1 (January 2023), pages 70-98. DOI: 10.5642/jhummath.CDRW3514. Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol13/iss1/6
