Early Bookkeeping Handbooks from Central Europe: A Case Study of the Czech Lands

Abstract

This article examines two bookkeeping handbooks from the Czech Lands written by Jan Brtvín of Ploskovice and Mikuláš Artemisius Černobýl, both published in the sixteenth century. The main principles of the bookkeeping process are described, and the relationship between the handbooks and contemporary accounting practices in the Czech Lands is explained. These handbooks are also compared with similar handbooks written by Heinrich Schreiber Grammateus, Johann Gottlieb, and Anzelm Gostomski from Leżenic that were issued in neighboring countries with close economic and political connections to the area under research. The results demonstrate a different character from the early bookkeeping handbooks published at the time in Germany, while there are a great deal of similarities with the handbooks from Poland. This article argues that the style of bookkeeping presented in the Czech and Polish handbooks was designed to organize internal estate affairs and its purpose was primarily to control, not to measure.