Accounting use and “lack of use” in a religious institution: Castrogiovanni College of the Society of Jesus (Italy 17th – 18th century)

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on the degree of alignment between the indications of P. Lodovico Flori’s Trattato del modo di tenere il libro doppio domestico col suo Essemplare (1636) and its actual use in the accounting activities of a Sicilian Jesuit College, between 1683 and 1739. The purpose of this article is to highlight a particular approach to the indications of the treatise which provides highly detailed and very strict guidance on the use of accounting for the purposes of the annual financial statements of the Houses and Colleges. To achieve this objective, this article considers the case of Castrogiovanni College of the Society of Jesus, located in one of the most internal areas of Sicily, as a practical application. The following article presents a case study, revealing a type of soft use of the accounting treatise written by Flori.