Q 01/05

Which Franciscan friar published the first printed description of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494?

A) Luca Pacioli

B) Fibonacci

C) Benedetto Cotrugli

D) Girolamo Cardano

Answer · why

A) Luca Pacioli

His Summa de arithmetica was written in Italian rather than Latin so merchants could read it, and he later taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci.

Q 02/05

Which Renaissance artist illustrated Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509)?

A) Michelangelo

B) Raphael of Urbino

C) Sandro Botticelli

D) Leonardo da Vinci

Answer · why

D) Leonardo da Vinci

The book explored the golden ratio, and the two worked together from about 1497 to 1506.

Q 03/05

The oldest surviving complete double-entry system is the 1340 Messari accounts of which Italian city?

A) Genoa

B) Venice

C) Florence

D) Milan

Answer · why

A) Genoa

Fragments of the Farolfi ledger from Florence in 1299-1300 are older but incomplete.

Q 04/05

Accounting records over 7,000 years old, in the form of clay tokens, have been found in which ancient region?

A) Egypt

B) Mesopotamia

C) The Indus Valley

D) China

Answer · why

B) Mesopotamia

Temple economies used the tokens to track goods long before writing itself developed.

Q 05/05

The word 'auditor' comes from the Latin audire, meaning what?

A) To count

B) To check

C) To hear

D) To swear

Answer · why

C) To hear

Early audits were literally heard: accounts were read aloud to the person checking them.