Friar Luca Pacioli: The Science of Numbers for Businesses
"One should never invest in something without having some certainty of the possibility for gain.”
Luca Pacioli (1445-1517) was a distinguished Franciscan scholar of multiple talents. Mathematician, philosopher and theologian, inspirer and friend of great artists (e.g. friend and influencer of Leonardo da Vinci), author of works in which he envisions a world on the threshold of great change, his learning constitutes the link between the Latin culture of scholars (important Humanistic authors) and the world of the technical and mathematical sciences.
While Michelangelo, Botticelli and others took revolutionary steps in art and Machiavelli did the same in political science, the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli brought creativity to the science of numbers, as applied above all to business management and accounting. From double entry to probability theory, the mathematical principles of the most vital areas of contemporary finance are all present in his most famous work: Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalità. Published in Venice in 1494, its aim was to place the economy in the broader context of humanism. In treatise, XI (De Computis et Scripturis) Pacioli analyzed various economic phenomena of his time and condemned the behavior of many businessmen, who achieved success by keeping two accounting books: one to show to buyers and the other to sellers.
Following the economic thinking of the Franciscan School, he affirmed that the goal of the businessman is, indeed, to earn profit, but "reasonable profit". He therefore made suggestions on how to do good business, but also how to keep accounts, how to pay taxes, and how to manage expenses. From this practical business philosophy, the market economy was born and developed, that is, a model for an urban civilization that is all-inclusive of social categories, where market activities are oriented towards the common good: to that socio-economic humanism, which is founded on reciprocity, social cooperation, and the unified development of life in relationship and in community. "There is no good economy without good entrepreneurs. Behind the decisions of good entrepreneurs, there are no abstract workers to make profit, but rather the faces of real people." (Pope Francis, Speech at Ilva in Genoa 27 May 2017).