Amatino Manucci was a merchant based in

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...

, France, in the last 13th century, whose work includes the earliest extant accounting of

double-entry bookkeeping Double-entry bookkeeping, also known as double-entry accounting, is a method of bookkeeping that relies on a two-sided accounting entry to maintain financial information. Every entry to an account requires a corresponding and opposite entry to ...

. Manucci kept the accounts for Giovanni Farolfi & Company, a merchant partnership based in

, France. Manucci was a partner for the Salon, South of France branch. The writing, entirely in Manucci's hand, is neat, legible, and mostly well preserved. Financial records from 1299—1300 survive that he kept for the firm's branch in Salon, Provence. Although these records are incomplete, they show enough detail to be identified as double-entry bookkeeping. These details include the use of

debits and credits Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit en ...

and duality of entries. "No more is known of Amatino Manucci, than this ledger that he kept." Amatino Manucci did not invent the double entry system: that was a 100-year process (perhaps a 9,000 year process). If he did not finish the process himself, it didn't occur long before, because it was clearly finished by the time he kept the books for his company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manucci, Amatino Italian accountants 13th-century Italian people Year of birth missing Year of death missing