Benedetto Cotrugli
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Benedetto Cotrugli sometimes Benedikt (Benko) Kotruljević) (1416, Dubrovnik - 1469, Aquila) was a Ragusan merchant, economist, scientist, diplomat and humanist. He was born in Dubrovnik in the Republic of Ragusa and died in Aquila, in the Kingdom of Naples, in 1469.
As a diplomat of the Kingdom of Naples, he spent some 15 years in the Court of Naples where he led many discussions and polished his thoughts on the humanist subjects.
The earliest copy of the Cotrugli's manuscript Libro de l'arte de la mercatura (Book on the Art of Trade) is kept in the National Library of Malta and is dated 1475. The text of this manuscript is followed by an appendix containing an inventory and many journal entries. It predates the description, not invention, by Luca Pacioli of the modern double-entry system in his Summa de Arithmetica of 1494.
