Where an older English translation and our literal reading of the print differ
What this page is: a short comparison, at a few places, between the English translations of John B. Geijsbeek (Denver, 1914) and Pietro Crivelli (London, 1924) and the literal English we have made from our reading of the 1494 Venice print. The English is a machine draft that no person has checked line by line, and the reading it rests on has its own doubtful places (see the Textual Apparatus). The comparison shows where they differ. It does not show that either is right at every point. Geijsbeek’s words are quoted from his book; the Italian is from our reading (Draft 7).
I. Five places
1. Accounts as a due order (Chapter 23; Zenodo p449, L02–03)
Geijsbeek (1914):
“Accounts are nothing else than the expressions in writing of the arrangement of his affairs, which the merchant keeps in his mind.”
Crivelli (1924):
“for accounts are nothing else but a due order of the fancy of a merchant, by which means he will have news of all his affairs”
The 1494 print (resolved reading, Draft 7):
cõcioſia che cõti non ſono altro che vn debito oꝛdine de la fantaſia che ſi fa el mercatante
Our literal English (machine draft):
“since accounts are nothing other than a due order of the imagination which the merchant makes for himself, through which, kept uniform, he comes to knowledge of all his affairs”
Note: The print has fantaſia, which we render “imagination”. Geijsbeek’s sentence does not have the word; Crivelli has “fancy”. Whether Pacioli means more by it than a mental ordering is a question for specialists.
2. The proverb on trading without knowing (Chapter 23; Zenodo p449, L04–05)
Geijsbeek (1914):
“If you are in business and do not know all about it, your money will go like flies, that is, you will lose it.”
Crivelli (1924):
“As the proverb says: he who does business without knowing all about it, sees his money turn into flies.”
The 1494 print (resolved reading, Draft 7):
el pꝛo . uerbio dici chi fa mercãtia e nõ la cognoſca li ſoi denari douẽtan moſca
Our literal English (machine draft):
“he who trades and does not know it, his denari become a fly”
Note: Geijsbeek adds the explanation “that is, you will lose it”, and writes “flies” for the print’s singular moſca.
3. Mars (Chapter 4; Zenodo p436, L45–46)
Geijsbeek (1914):
“Work should not seem to you strange for Mars never granted a victory to those that spent their time resting.”
Crivelli (1924):
“does fatigue not appear strange to you, that Mars never granted victory to those who resting, fed themselves.”
The 1494 print (resolved reading, Draft 7):
conceſſe mai bataglia A quelli che poſſando ſe nutrica
Our literal English (machine draft):
“Let toil not seem strange to you, for Mars did not ever grant battle to those who by resting[?] feed themselves[?]”
Note: The print has bataglia, battle; Geijsbeek and Crivelli both have “victory”. The phrase after “resting” is marked doubtful in our draft.
4. The second requirement (Chapter 1; Zenodo p434, L28–29)
Geijsbeek (1914):
“The second thing necessary in business is to be a good bookkeeper and ready mathematician.”
Crivelli (1924):
“The second thing looked for in business is to be a good accountant and sharp book-keeper”
The 1494 print (resolved reading, Draft 7):
buon ragioneri e prompto computista
Our literal English (machine draft):
“a good ragioniere [reckoner] and ready computista [calculator]”
Note: Our first English glossed ragioniere “accountant”. Crivelli has “accountant” as well. Sangster and Santini (Accounting History 27(3), 2022) argue that ragioneri here means someone good at reckoning, a mathematician, and that earlier translators wrongly took it as accountant or bookkeeper. After reading their paper we changed our gloss to “reckoner”; the project owner, an accountant, had already favoured that word.
“Books should be closed each year, especially in partnership because frequent accounting makes for long friendship.”
Crivelli (1924):
“…especially he who is in partnership as the proverb says—frequent accounting tends to lasting friendship.”
The 1494 print (resolved reading, Draft 7):
Ma ſẽpꝛe e buono deſaldare ognanno . maxime chi e in cõpᵃ . ꝑche el ꝓuerbio dici ragion ſpeſſa amiſta lõga
Our literal English (machine draft):
“But it is always good to balance every year, especially for one who is in a compagnia [partnership], because the proverb says: frequent ragione [reckoning], long friendship”
Note: Geijsbeek writes “accounting”; we keep the Italian ragione with the gloss “reckoning”.
II. Four further points
1. Beccaria and mercato
Pacioli writes that a merchant needs “another brain than for a butcher’s shop” (al mercante bisogna altro ceruello che de beccaria; Zenodo p444, L04–05). Gitti’s 1878 edition prints al mercato bisogna altro cervello che non sia quello di beccaria: he changes mercante to mercato and adds words, but keeps beccaria. We do not know why he changed it.
2. An arithmetic slip in Chapter 28
In the carry-forward example, the print gives the remainder as ℔8 ß6 g 5 p7 (Zenodo p451, L32–38). Subtracting ℔72 ß9 g3 p17 from ℔80 ß15 g15 p24 gives g 12 (15 − 3), so the printed “5” is a slip, whether the printer’s or Pacioli’s. We keep it as printed and list it in the Textual Apparatus.
3. A sentence that stops at the foot of the page
The foot of folio 206v (Zenodo p450, L56) ends mid-sentence: E se el tuo commesso fosse i le bande (“And if your commesso [agent] were in the regions”). Folio 207r (Zenodo p451) opens with the heading of Chapter 27. The sentence is left as printed in our reading.
4. Ponti: bridges or points
The proverb that more “points” are needed to make a good merchant than a doctor of laws has ponti in the print (Zenodo p436, L21). Geijsbeek renders it “bridges”. Crivelli (1924) has “points”, as we do.
III. What this does and does not show
It shows that at these places a literal reading of the print differs from Geijsbeek’s English in wording, and in one case (ragioniere) in sense. It does not show that the earlier translators were careless, or that the print supports any particular theory of why double entry arose; for that, see the specialist literature.
Sources used for the comparisons on this page: John B. Geijsbeek (Denver, 1914); Pietro Crivelli (London, 1924, from the free Internet Archive copy); Vincenzo Gitti (Turin, 1878); and the project's resolved reading (Draft 7) and machine English (Draft 5) from Luca Pacioli, Summa de arithmetica (Venice: Paganino de' Paganini, 1494), Library of Congress copy via Zenodo.