The Book Depository Double Entry by Jane Gleeson-White
188 ratings
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Price: £16.97
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Double Entry : Paperback : WW Norton & Co : 9780393346596 : 0393346595 : 08 Nov 2013 : Lively history. Show[s] double entry's role in the creation of the accounting profession, and even of capitalism itself.-The New Yorker. The Book Depository Double Entry by Jane Gleeson-White - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780393346596
MPN: 0393346595
GTIN: 9780393346596
Author: Per Sodersten
Rating: 5
Review: Double Entry is a wonderful book! It opens up an entirely new world by taking a fresh look at the role of mathematics in economy and the arts in renaissance Venice. Piero della Francesca may have been better known as a mathematician in his days than as an artist. Art was "applied mathematics" at the time! Leonardo, as we know, was everything, yet he too may have been more of a scientist than an artist. Or perhaps, like Piero, Leonardo was also an applied mathematician. Either way, mathematics created many possibilities and the star mathematician was Luca Pacioli, largely forgotten today despite the fact that he did it all, including applying mathematics for effective business and so gave birth to capitalism. The story is told by Jane Gleeson-White with admirable clarity and insight, the influence of Luca Pacioli is with us even today as his system of double book keeping has remained essentially the same over some 5-600 years. Given the influence of mathematics on the arts in the days of Piero, Paciolo and Leonardo, one only regrets that science appears to exerts no influence on today's artists; Feynman even argued that this is reason why artists "are lost, they don't know what to paint because they don't understand how the world works." Understanding the world was the basis for all the fun and excitement that engaged Feyman in his life and by making the reader understand the influence of early mathematics on many aspects of life in Venice, Jane Gleeson-White makes a strong case for her idea that book keeping may turn out to be the most important factor for our possibility to meet some of our most important future challenges, including climate change! It is an extraordinary read, which can be warmly recommended to anyone who wishes to be surprised and delighted.
Author: AmazonSusy
Rating: 3
Review: Interesting book, particularly the first third. It gets lots in unnecessary biographical information in the middle and finishes well, although it does condense decades of history in a few pages.
