Organisational and accounting change at the Great and New Hospital of Palermo: Enlightenment reforms and institutional logics in early eighteenth-century Sicily

Abstract

The 1722 renovation of Palermo's Great and New Hospital marked Sicily's first modern healthcare reorganisation, departing from mediaeval models. Using archival sources and the institutional logic lens, this study examines the evolution of accounting at this hospital in the early Enlightenment, providing richer information for decision-making. The merchant rector played a key administrative role within the hospital. This was because the merchants held significant influence over the governance of Palermo. This renovation occurred within the Italian Enlightenment, initially under the House of Savoy and later the Austrian Habsburgs, predating Bourbon-era studies in the European context.