Luca Pacioli

Luca Pacioli (also known as the Father of accounting) father was Bartolomeo Pacioli. As a child he did not live in his parents home. He was raised by the Belfoci family. He was born in Sansepolcro where the Belfoci family had raised him. A man named Piero della Francesca had a studio and workshop where both he and Luca spent a lot of their time.

Once Luca became older he moved away from Sansepolcro to enter the service if a wealthy merchant Antonio Rompiasi. Luca was very well educated in basic mathematics from studies at the studio. He was overall very well educated and was chosen to be a tutor for Rompiasi's three sons. Later Luca  took the opportunity to continue his mathematical studies at a higher level while still in Venice. During this time he had gained experience and knowledge in teaching from tutoring and in business from his role helping out Rompiasi's finances.

It was during Pacioli's time in Venice were he wrote his first work, a book on the arithmetic. This book was completed in 1470. After the book was finished he traveled to Rome where he spent several months living in the house of Leone Battista Alberti who was the secretary of of the Papal Chancery. Alberti was also an excellent scholar and mathematician. He also introduced Pacioli to the world of religion. Pacioli while still staying with Alberti took up studying theology. Later on in his visit to Rome he became a friar in the Franciscan order.

In 1477 Pacioli decided to begin traveling, he started to spend his time at many universities teaching mathematics, and arithmatics. He taught at the university of Perugia (1477-1480) while there on his visit he wrote his second work of arithmetic designed for the classes that he was teaching.He then later started to teach at Zara. It was while he was teaching that he came out with his third book on arithmetic. None of his three books where ever published, the only one that is still available now is the one originally written for his students at the universities he taught at. After teaching at Zara , Pacioli taught at the university of Perugia, the university of Naples, and the the University of Rome.

Word had started to spread about Pacioli and his teachings , he became acquainted with the duke of Urbino. He continued to tutor Federico's son Guidobaldo who had become the last ruling Montefeltro when his father died in 1482.

In 1489, Pacioli had spent 2 years in Rome, he returned to his home town. By being acquainted with the pope Pacioli was granted some privileges. Many people were jealous about this mostly beacause he was a man from religious orders. So they banned Pacioli  from teaching in his home town in 1491 but many people also felt a deep respect for Pacioli for his education and scholarship so in 1493 he was invited to preach the Lent sermons.

During the time he had spent in his hometown (Sansepolcro) Pacioli worked on one of his most famous books the "Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita." Which he had dedicated to the duke of Urbino (Guidobaldo). Pacioli traveled to Venice to publish this book. The "summa" provides a summary of  the mathematics known at the time although it shows very little original ideas.The book studies arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, the purpose of the work was to provide a basis for the major progress in mathematics which took place in Europe shortly after this time.

Another fact about the "summa" was that it studied the games of chance. Pacioli studied the problem of points, although his solution was incorrect.

Francesco's son Ludovico became the Duke of Milan. When Francesco died in 1466 Ludovico invited Pacioli to go to Milan to teach mathematics at Ludovico Sforza's court. The invitation was on the behalf of
 Leonardo da Vinci who at the time had an enthusiatsic interest in Mathematics.

When in Milan Pacioli and Leonardo quickly became close friends. They commonly talked about topics that tied into their professions such as Mathematics and Art. Both gained a lot by talking to one another, During his stay at Milan Pacioli began working on the second of his famous books Divina proportione . All figures and drawings in the text were done by Leonardo. Very few mathematicians would have such an artist to work on their books. This made Pacioli's book more popular and well known.

King Louis XII of France being a descendant of the first duke of Milan claimed the duchy. Venice supported The king against Milan in 1499 French armies entered Milan. The following year Ludovico Sforza was captured attempting to retake the city Pacioli and Leonardo fled together in December 1499, three months after the French captured Milan. They stopped first at Mantua, where they were guests of  Marchioness Isabella d'Este, and in March 1500 they continued to Venice. From Venice they returned to Florence , where Pacioli and Leonardo shared a house.

The University of Pisa had suffered a revolt in 1494 and had moved to Florence . Pacioli was then appointed to teach geometry at the university until 1506. Leonardo also stayed until 1506. Pacioli later taught at the University of bologna during 1501-1502. During his time teaching there he started to work with Scipione Del Ferro. They mostly discussed Pacioli's algebraic solution of cubic equations, Del Ferro solved one of the two cases of the classic problem.

Also during Pacioli's visit he was involved with the church as well as in mathematics. He was elected the superior of his order in Romagna and then in 1506 he entered the monastery of Santa Croce in Florence. After leaving Florence Pacioli went to Venice where he was given the sole of rights to publish his works there for the following 15 years. In 1509 he published the three volume work Divina Proportione and also a Latin translation of Euclids elements.

In 1510 Pacioli returned to Perugia to lecture there again. He also lectured again in Rome in 1514 by this time Pacioli was 70 years of age. Near the end of Pacioli's life of scholarship and teaching. He returned to Sansepolcro where he died in 1517 leaving an unpublished major work called "De Viribus Quantitatis" on recreational problems, geometrical problems, and proverbs.

In 1550 there was a biography of Piero Della Francecsa, which had accused Pacioli of plagiarism, and claimed that he had stolen Della Francesca's work on perspective. This was a false accusation because though Pacioli relied on others for his ideas he gave a large amount of credit to them in each of his works.