The Sillografia of Luigi Bianchini (1878): an example of ‘inscrutable’ accounting – The last decades of the 1800s are recognized as being the most relevant for the development of the Italian accounting system. In those years, the eager efforts of accountants in Italy led to the scientific growth of the discipline and the dignifying of accounting studies and the profession generally. This historical period has been identified as the ‘golden age’ of accounting, since a number of new accounting applications emerged and contributed by differing extents to the abovementioned development of accounting studies. Among these applications, the Sillografia is a particular bookkeeping tool that was deliberately designed to be inscrutable, in order to prevent third parties from reading and interpreting the accounting status and dynamics of an economic entity such as a firm. In contrast with the major bookkeeping techniques of the time, but according to the prescriptions of the Code of Commerce (1865), the Sillografia identifies the Journal book as the most relevant accounting book, before the general Ledger. This implied a simplification of the bookkeeping process, which was only likened to maintaining the Journal book and some auxiliary logs; this created an intrinsic difficulty in having a full perception of the firm’s assets and performance, due to the absence of a direct systematization of the accounts in a general Ledger and in a following balance sheet and income statement. Moreover, the most relevant trait of the Sillografia is the omission from the bookkeeping in the Journal book of relevant records such as cash, inventories, payables, receivables, and installation costs. While the information related to these records can be inferred indirectly through auxiliary logs, such as the cash account or the creditors and debtors account, the final result is that only the specific accountant who was involved in the bookkeeping (and had access to the auxiliary logs) had the interpretative key to decipher the accounting data and retrace the firm assets and the actual firm performance. Having said that, the Sillografia also has relevant advantages such as conceptual conciseness, which translated well into basic bookkeeping and the possibility of easy record-checking through the totals of the Journal book. Unfortunately, the Sillografia did not attract much attention from scholars of that time or contemporary researchers, mainly because of the editorial choices of the author (it was published as an appendix to an accounting handbook for banks) and partly because it proposed an elaboration of a single-entry bookkeeping system (instead of the more widely diffused double-entry bookkeeping scheme) for small and commercial firms. Thus, it has remained a little-known accounting application. Despite this circumstance, the Sillografia contributed to characterize an important historical moment for the emancipation and the scientific growth of the accounting discipline, as did many other bookkeeping techniques that emerged towards the end of the 19th century in Italy. For this reason, the current work offers a framing of the exciting cultural context in which the Sillografia diffused through printed publications. This study then illustrates the bookkeeping technique, highlighting its characteristics and advantages and disadvantages of its use, and finally remarks on some concluding considerations.
La Sillografia di Luigi Bianchini (1878): un esempio di contabilità «ermetica»
Coronella Stefano
;
2018-01-01
Abstract
The Sillografia of Luigi Bianchini (1878): an example of ‘inscrutable’ accounting – The last decades of the 1800s are recognized as being the most relevant for the development of the Italian accounting system. In those years, the eager efforts of accountants in Italy led to the scientific growth of the discipline and the dignifying of accounting studies and the profession generally. This historical period has been identified as the ‘golden age’ of accounting, since a number of new accounting applications emerged and contributed by differing extents to the abovementioned development of accounting studies. Among these applications, the Sillografia is a particular bookkeeping tool that was deliberately designed to be inscrutable, in order to prevent third parties from reading and interpreting the accounting status and dynamics of an economic entity such as a firm. In contrast with the major bookkeeping techniques of the time, but according to the prescriptions of the Code of Commerce (1865), the Sillografia identifies the Journal book as the most relevant accounting book, before the general Ledger. This implied a simplification of the bookkeeping process, which was only likened to maintaining the Journal book and some auxiliary logs; this created an intrinsic difficulty in having a full perception of the firm’s assets and performance, due to the absence of a direct systematization of the accounts in a general Ledger and in a following balance sheet and income statement. Moreover, the most relevant trait of the Sillografia is the omission from the bookkeeping in the Journal book of relevant records such as cash, inventories, payables, receivables, and installation costs. While the information related to these records can be inferred indirectly through auxiliary logs, such as the cash account or the creditors and debtors account, the final result is that only the specific accountant who was involved in the bookkeeping (and had access to the auxiliary logs) had the interpretative key to decipher the accounting data and retrace the firm assets and the actual firm performance. Having said that, the Sillografia also has relevant advantages such as conceptual conciseness, which translated well into basic bookkeeping and the possibility of easy record-checking through the totals of the Journal book. Unfortunately, the Sillografia did not attract much attention from scholars of that time or contemporary researchers, mainly because of the editorial choices of the author (it was published as an appendix to an accounting handbook for banks) and partly because it proposed an elaboration of a single-entry bookkeeping system (instead of the more widely diffused double-entry bookkeeping scheme) for small and commercial firms. Thus, it has remained a little-known accounting application. Despite this circumstance, the Sillografia contributed to characterize an important historical moment for the emancipation and the scientific growth of the accounting discipline, as did many other bookkeeping techniques that emerged towards the end of the 19th century in Italy. For this reason, the current work offers a framing of the exciting cultural context in which the Sillografia diffused through printed publications. This study then illustrates the bookkeeping technique, highlighting its characteristics and advantages and disadvantages of its use, and finally remarks on some concluding considerations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
