Many faces of Luca Pacioli: Iconographic research over thirty years

              The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 13, No. 2 Fall 1986
Ernest Stevelinck BELGIUM
THE MANY FACES OF LUCA PACIOLI: ICONOGRAPHIC RESEARCH OVER THIRTY YEARS*
Abstract: This article, first delivered as a paper at the 1980 World Congress of Accounting Historians in London,1 presents the results of three decades of the author's research in pursuit of a true image of Luca Pacioli. Portraits, sculptures, and sketches are traced to painters and artists of several periods. The mystery relating to Pacioli's likeness is considered. Stevelinck suggests that the search for a true portrait continues, given the disputes over the authenticity of various paint-ings and their faithfulness in representing the appearance of Pacioli. The research also provides important information about the career of Pacioli by considering the relationships revealed in the artwork presented.
Present-day accountants have the advantage of knowing who Luca Pacioli was. I studied accountancy without ever hearing of him, and it was only much later, when I became interested in the origins of accounting and consequently in its history, that I made the acquaintance of this friar who, in 1494, wrote Summa d Arithme-tic, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita.
His genius allowed him to assimilate a wide range of knowledge and to see things as they were. He associated with the leading men of his time and gained their friendship. Thus he won the favor of Federigo, Duke of Urbino, and gained access to his library.
He lived for a year in Rome with the architect Leon Battista Alberti, who was also a mathematician, philosopher, poet, humanist, and jurist. He made contact with the della Rovere family. Francesco della Rovere was Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84), and his two nephews had a close relationship with Luca Pacioli. One, Giovanni della Rovere, was the brother-in-law of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, and later Pacioli's protector. The other, Giuliano della Rovere, who was destined to become Pope Julius II (1503-13), formed an equally strong friendship with Pacioli.
*Translated from French by Geoffrey A. Lee, University of Nottingham. Adapted, edited and revised by Alfred R. Roberts, Georgia State University.