More Than a Technical Discipline: The Accounting Culture in Italy, A glance through the “Schools”

Abstract

In consideration of the lack of a common understanding of some important concepts in the Italian culture of accounting, this paper tries to offer an overview of the ‘Accounting Schools’ in Italy, with particular attention to their meaning among their contexts. It presents the main ideas of the authors of the classical Lombard School, the Tuscan, the Venetian and the Palermitan one, pointing out how the two elected concepts of azienda and ragioneria changed through space and time. At the end a critical synthesis of the whole is outlined.