As far as I know, Prof. Miguel Alfonso Mart=EDnez Echevarr=EDa (University of Navarra, Spai= n) was researching on the history of accounting. In an interview we had last yea= r he told me that the origins of accounting should be traced back to Lucca Paccioli (Mathematician Franciscan friar, born in Tuscany, Italy, in the fifteenth century). He also gave me some references that may be of intere= st for you: Storia della regioneria, Federigo Melis, Bologna, 1950 The beginnings of accounting practice & accounting thought, Richard Mattessich, New York, 2000 Time, work & culture in the Middle Ages, Jacques Le Goff, Chicago, 1980 Il mondo come gioco matematico, Ana Mill=E1n Gasca and Giorgio Israel, Ro= ma, 1995 Best, Olivia Orozco