Notes about This Book, the Translation, and the Text

This book presents a critical English translation of the first, 1636, edition of Lodovico Flori’s “most interesting and sophisticated [treatise] on bookkeep- ing and accounts”, Trattato del modo di tenere il libro doppio domestico col suo essemplare. It has never previously been translated into English from its original 17th century Italian infused with Sicilian terms. Written at the request of his superiors, when published it was a much needed manual on how to keep records of the day-to-day transactions and activities of the houses and colleges of the Jesuit Order. The choice of Flori to write this text was well-founded. Like the Franciscan friar, Luca Pacioli, author of the first printed manual on this topic in 1494, Flori was a native of the area around Perugia in the region of Umbria. After entering the Jesuit Order at the age of 30 in 1610, he was sent to Sicily where he became a General Administrator of the large and wealthy Jesuit colleges of the vast Province of Sicily, serving for 15 years as Padre Procuratore (Father Manager), i.e. Bursar or Steward, of the Collegio Massimo in Palermo.