Akira Nakanishi
CUO UNIVERSITY

ON THE LIFE OF LUCA PAClOLl

Abstract: Many aspects of Luca Pacioli’s life remain to be clarified for us. The author has, through personal research, thrown light on Paciloi’s last resting place and his date of death.

Luca Pacioli is famous among accountants as the “Patriarch of Accounting”. The career of this internationally known monk has been the subject of intensive research by many scholars. Yet, there are still aspects of his unique life in the golden age of the Renais¬sance to be clarified. Among these are the date and place of his death and his final resting place.

Date of Death

Recently the editor of the Journal of Accountancy wrote “Pacioli, an Italian mathematician who is considered the ‘Father of the Balance Sheet,’ lived from about 1445 to 1520”.1 But it is now widely held in his own country that he passed away in 1517. A new publication by the headquarters of the Franciscan Conventuali Order lists his name as a famous deceased member: “il matematico Luca Pacioli da Sansepolcro (1517)”.2 This dating of his death is—probably a result of the scientific investigations of Don lvano Ricci, which resulted in the book, Fra Luca Pacioli – L’uomo e I Scienziato pub¬lished at Sansepolcro in 1940.

In researching old documents in the archives of Sansepolcro, Don I. Ricci, the late chief librarian there, found two significant letters from the Convento di S. Francesco (Monastery of St. Francis) of that city. The first, dated April 15, 1517, was addressed to mem¬bers attending the annual meeting of the Franciscan Order at Assisi and states: “We, all the friars, do justly hope to have Master Luca Pacioli elected as the Provincial Minister of Assisi, as he is so virtuous, duly aged and respected by the people of this district. . . .” The second, dated October 20, 1517 and addressed to their pro¬vincial minister requests a pardon for the violence of two friars who were the nephews of Luca Pacioli, using the expression “la bona memoria di m°. Luca (in the good memory of the late Master Luca)”. Therefore, Ricci concluded that the great mathematician must have died in 1517, sometime between those two dates.

Hoping to be able to ascertain the exact date of Pacioli’s death, the author and some comrades visited Italy in 1972 and 1973. Kindly accompanied by an Italian priest, they visited the Conventuali monasteries at Sansepolcro, Perugia, Urbino and Firenze (Florence), one of which may have been the last sojourn of Luca Pacioli. They did not find his mausoleum which was specified in his wills of November 9, 1508 and December 21, 1511.4 Later, P. F. Taniguchi, who had translated Ricci’s book into Japanese, advised the author that Pacioli’s name must have been traditionally recorded with his date of death in the necrologium (necrology) of the monastery to which he belonged. Fra Luca Pacioli belonged to the Franciscan monastery at Sansepolcro, but in 1505 he changed to that at Firenze, Convento di Santa Croce, the largest monastery in the state of Tuscany. Last Autumn the author did revisit the famous cathedral and examine its records with the special permission of authorities.

Upon entering the Cloister of Santa Croce, on October 17, 1978, I was guided by Guard (Abbot) Mario Franchi, to one of the quiet rooms, where a large book lay open on a desk. This mild priest did immediately place his finger on an open page at the notation:

1517, S. Sepolcro—P. M. Luca Pacioli, per primo dette all’algebra linguaggio e struttura di scienza, dettó opere di mate-matica, consultato, da Leonardo da Vinci, mori forse in patria a 70 anni. (1517, Sansepolcro—Father & Master Luca Pacioli, who was the first man in illustrating and systematizing the algebra, who wrote books on mathematics and who was consulted by Leonardo da Vinci, died perhaps in his native place at seventy years of age.)

These Italian words were typed on a separate fragment of paper and attached to page 171 of the book. The Franciscan monk stated that this sentence had been prepared by Fra Tarcisio della Rovere and inserted several years ago. It is to be regretted that the exact date of the recording is not certain and could not be verified, be¬cause that scholarly friar died in 1976 in that monastery. The present abbot explained that before this new insertion there had been recorded on an earlier page: “S. Sepolcro—P.M. Luca Pacioli” without the year or other particulars.

On the title page of this book appears:

“Necrologium — Almae Provinciae Thucciae — Fratum Minorum Conventual um — Jussu adm. P, T. M. Julii
Baglioni — Ministri Provincialis — editum.” (The List of the Deceased — (in) the Prosperous Province of Tus-cany — (among) the Brothers of Franciscan Conventuali — Issued under the supervision of P. T. M. Julii Baglioni — Provincial Minister — the editor.) On the back cover, which is rather soiled and a bit torn, there appeared the following Latin title:
“Die undevicesima junii defun.” (died on June 19th)

The necrologium of June 19th at the Monastery of Santa Croce

The monk acting as our guide explained that the present necrologium had been prepared by the late provincial minister, J. Baglioni in 1930-1931. Its contents has been taken primarily from a prior necrologium. It can, therefore, be presumed that the name of Luca Pacioli had been in the necrologium of the monastery for hundreds of years, but there is no actual supporting evidence. The compiler of the present necrologium died in 1945 and all older documents were destroyed in the cellar of the monastery by the inundation of the River Anno in 1966.

It is the custom of the big monastery to prepare a separate necrologium for each day of the year in memory of the friars of that monastery who died that day over the years since its founding. Every year for a long period, perhaps through the centuries, a sacred mass has been held on the morning of June 19 in memory of Luca Pacioli and other friars who died on the same day. His name has also been chanted on June 18 in the cloister in its eve after their late dinner.

Reasonable presumption would permit us to accept June 19th as the day of Pacioli’s death. This date is not a particular memorial day for his clerical order, for his famous patrons nor for his guardian saint. The failure of earlier records to indicate the year may have been due to the unsettled conditions of the year 1517. In the Franciscan Order, the fierce movement of separation of the Minori (Observants) from the Conventuali was carried out in that year. The date June 19th, 1517 falls between the dates of the two letters mentioned above and unless counter evidence is found, this day should be respectfully observed for Pacioli’s death just as Christmas is traditionally observed on December 25th on earth.

Pacioli’s Final Resting Place

According to an official record of the Franciscan Order, “Regesta Ordinis”, still kept in the library of its headquarters at Rome, he was appointed by its president on February 22, 1510 to the com-missarius (commissary) of the monastery at Sansepolcro. He was to have special privileges, including release from the duty of attending mass and other ceremonies, and the right to take meals separately with his friends in his room.5 These special privileges brought about friction between Fra Luca and his fellow friars. In his concluding years, observing the monasteric rules, we presume, the old theologian was to comfortably enjoy his quiet life in the cloister at his native town.

It is certain that Pacioli lived in the monastery at Sansepolcro for more than one year before his death. He had been temporarily appointed professor of mathematics at the pontifical university at Rome in 1514, but appears to have retired to Sansepolcro in the next year. There is no record yet discovered of Pacioli’s having lived at any other city after the year 1515. A minute of the Comune (city) Sansepolcro dated March 14, 1516 states: “Rev.dus pater sacre theologiae MO. Lucas Pacioli” was living se concordaverunt et pacificaverunt” (harmoniously and peacefully) with his fellow friars, having given up his “privilegiis apostolicis”.

According to his testament, he wished to be buried in the church of the monastery where he will have died. In the evening of his life, he may have visited nearby monasteries such as Santa Croce, but our investigations have not found any evidence of his dying at these monasteries. Only at Sansepolcro, by the Franciscan monk, P. Ugo Renzi, was it asserted that the body of Luca Pacioli is traditionally believed to have been buried under the altar of the chapel of that monastery. Old documents that might attest to this fact were lost during the invasion of the Napoleonic armies. How-ever, we did not find, in the precinct of the monastery, the tomb that Pacioli provided for in his wills. Pope Julius II in 1508 had given him permission to possess his own property and he apparently had the means to endow a memorial.8 Some leading citizens of Sansepolcro insisted that his body will be found with his memorial pergamena under the altar of Chiesa di S. Giovanni (Church of St. John), where his parents and ancestors were buried. This ancient church, built in 1331 and situated at the north-east section in the rampart, is now used as a warehouse under the administration of Comune Sansepolcro.

Still another question is raised by the last phrase of the Italian inscribed in the necrologium above mentioned: “mori (he died) forse (perhaps) in patria (at his native place) a 70 anni (when 70 years old)”. If he was 70 years old at his death in 1517, he would have been born in 1447. But, according to the research of Professor R. E. Taylor, “the year 1445 is accepted as the correct date of Pacioli’s birth”.9 This Taylor’s book is well respected in Italy, too, but that scholarly monk of Santa Croce gave no explanation of his conclusion regarding Pacioli’s birth date. It is to be hoped that in the future additional evidence will be discovered to settle this question.

Pacioli’s Priesthood

When he entered into holy orders is another question that was investigated. It is well established that Pacioli began his career as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Perugia in 1475. In those days, this newly accepted subject was a branch of theology at the university under the Pope’s administration and its teachers had to be members of the priesthood. It has traditionally taken at least three years for any novice to be ordained a Franciscan priest regardless of how well qualified he may be in his subject. Thus, Luca Pacioli must have taken the vow to become a monk in 1472, the year his great patron, Leon Battista Alberti, died in April at Rome.

Professor Taylor did well point out that the images of Luca Pacioli can be recognized among the figures painted by Piero della Francesca, the instructor of Luca Pacioli at Sansepolcro. In the picture “Madonna and Child, with Angels and Saints” at Brera, Milano (Milan), Pacioli appeared in the black habit of a Franciscan friar, As a reasonable assumption from the models of Madonna and Child, Taylor states that “the year (that the great artist began to paint) must have been 1472”.10

Pacioli’s religious training undoubtedly influenced his life and is observable in his published works. Although his lectures on mathe-matics were well received in colleges, public halls, the royal courts, and even in churches, he regarded himself as “sacre theologie humilis professor” (a humble teacher of sacred theology).11 In his published books, he took pains to demonstrate techniques useful for the “eternal prosperity”, but he did not ignore the religious side of life. In his Summa, he prefaced the accounting records with “al nome de dio” (in the name of the Lord). Also in the trial balance, where the amount of “Per” (debit) equals the amount of “A” (credit), he writes, “a sui laude et gloria” (for the praise and glory of God).12 This pious mediator seems to have intended the realization of “divine proportione” (the divine proportion) through “the most certainty”, i.e. mathematics.
Last year, for my published essays in Japanese on Luca Pacioii, I had the honor of receiving the academic award of 1978 from the city authorities of Sansepolcro. The award is made to those who contribute to the recognition of the cultural heritage of the city. After being cordially welcomed in its commendation ceremony at this peaceful town on October 12, I was told by II Sindaco (the mayor), lvano Del Furia, the Chief Librarian, Dr. F. Comanducci and other officials that their citizens cherish the desire to have an international meeting of accountants in Sansepolcro, the birth place and last resting place of Luca Pacioli.

FOOTNOTES
1 J. of A., December 1977, p. 74.
2 Fonzo, etc., p. 70.
3 Ricci, pp. 23-24.
4 Ricci, pp. 45-52.
5 The original Regesta Ordinis states:

1510, 22 Febr.: Reverendus Magister Lucas de Burgo instituitur Commissar-ius sui conventus, cum facultate eadem quam ipse Minister si personaliter adesset, in benefcium dicti conventus et fratrum salutem, et in illis casibus in quibus auctoritas Misistri esset opportuna et omnia alia facienda quae ad vitiorum exipationem et ad perfectum vivendi statum ei videbitur opportunum, inhibendo omnibus inferiorbus ut eum non cogant ad sequelam chori vel refectorii, hebdomariam in choro aut missas decantandas, imo ei conceditur

Nakanishi: On The Lite of Luca Pacioli

59

quod possit comedere in camera una cum suo socio quotiens sibi placuerit.
Mandatur fratribus ut ei in dicta Commissione obediant. 6Ricci, p. 23. 7Ricci, p. 50. 8Ricci, p. 45. 9Taylor, p. 9. 10Taylor, p. 119. 11Ricci, p. 45, p. 50. 12Pacioli, 11. 198-210.
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Fonzo, L. D., G. Odoardi and A. Pompei, ed. I Frati Conventuali—Storia e Vita
1209 – 1976, Roma, Curia Generalizia, O. F. M. Conv., 1978. Littleton, A. C. Accounting Evolution to 1900, New York, Russel & Russel, 1933,
1936. Pacioll, Luca. SUMMA DE ARlTHMETlCA GEOMETRIA PROPORTlONl ET PRO-
PORTIONALITA, Venezia, 1494. Ricci, Ivano. Fra Luca Pacioli—L’uomo e lo Scienziato, Sansepolcro, Boncom-
pagni, 1940. Taylor, R. Emmet. No Royal Road—Luca Pacioli and His Times, University o f
North Carolina Press, 1942.