The Court of Auditors in the Kingdom of Sicily

Abstract

The paper investigates the history of a major Sicilian institution in Accounting: the local Court of Auditors. This began to work in a very early period, the XIII century, under the Swabian dynasty in the most glorious period of the old Kingdom of Sicily, when the modern European state was beginning to take root. The public audit for accounting, after, flew parallel to the events of local parliamentary institutions. The paper then focuses on two main arguments. The former is the history of this court in itself, its rise in power when Sicily evolved in a constitutional monarchy, its life gaced with the baronial biases and arrogance under the weak government of viceroys, and finally its decline and dead when Sicily, together with its centuries-old Parliament, was dissolved in the Italian political process of unification. The second is the mapping of archival resources left along this intriguing and dramatic long life; by means of a few samples it is showed what a fertile field is open for Accounting as well as for social and economic history studies.