Luca Pacioli

Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli was born around 1447 in Borgo Sansepolcro, Tuscany, and became a Franciscan friar with a knack for mathematics. He was the first to publish a work on double-entry bookkeeping on the continent, laying the foundation for modern accounting. Along the way he collaborated with Leonardo da Vinci, blending art, science, and the practical arithmetic of merchants. His dual life — monk and mathematician, theorist and systems-builder — earned him the title "father of accounting." He died on 19 June 1517, leaving behind a framework that outlasted empires.