Written by Hugh Oldcastle (revised by John Mellis)
Printed by John Windet (London; 1588)
Schoolmaster and teacher of arithmetic in the parish of St Olave's, Southwark, John Mellis claims to have 'enlarged and beautified' Oldcastle's original work of 1543. The examples he added at the end show instances of following Ympyn and Peele rather than Oldcastle and illustrations with the text are also obviously Mellis's work. The overall impression is however that Oldcastle's lost work is fairly faithfully reproduced.
As with Ympyn it is impossible to be sure that Oldcastle' s work was taken directly from Pacioli. If it was not it must, like Ympyn 's book, have been taken from a source very close to the authority for Pacioli's 'Methods of Venice' .
This article was originally prepared by the library team in the mid-twentieth century to introduce the rare books and facsimiles in our collection to a wider audience. It is not intended as a piece of scholarly analysis and should not be read as such.
Historical Accounting Literature
The ICAEW collection of historical accounting literature currently comprises over 4,000 volumes and includes works published from the 15th century to the early 20th century. The collection includes books and journals in a variety of languages.
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