La presunta decadenza della ragioneria italiana nel Settecento: un’analisi critica

The vast majority of the Italian accounting scholars considers the Eighteenth century as a century of decline for the Accounting studies since the works of Italian Authors did not stand out for innovation and originality at the time. However, a minority of Accounting scholars remarks that the Eighteenth century in Italy should not be simply interpreted in a negative light because it ideally joints the fruitful Seventeenth century to the Positivism of the Nineteenth century. This work is inspired by this latter consideration and it aims at analysing the Italian studies published in the Eighteenth century which have some – major or minor - focus on Accounting. The analysis will provide a full account of the Italian Accounting literature of that time, instead of giving partial – and often brief - account of individual Authors as usually provided in more ‘comprehensive’ Accounting history works. The whole nineteen studies which have been published in the Eighteenth century have been systematically analysed from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. The results reveal that there are clear marks of originality and innovation in every study. Even if these marks may be considered as limited, they lead to reconsider the accuracy of the statement that the Eighteenth century is a century of decline for the Italian Accounting studies. After describing the background of this work, its methodology and how the Italian publications of the Eighteenth century have been recovered for the analysis, this work illustrates concisely the contents of these publications and it categorizes the related Authors in ‘major’ and ‘minor’. A comprehensive discussion concludes this work.