1300 AD: Medieval Italy and the Foundations of the Modern World

When we think of Italy and inventions essential to the modern world, what comes to mind is the Renaissance: Galileo and his telescope; Leonardo da Vinci and his marvelous sketches of flying machines; or possibly, Brunelleschi and his scientific approach to linear perspective, essential to art, architecture and engineering. We don’t think of medieval Italy, and we don’t think about accounting.

Yet one of the inventions most crucial to the formation of the modern world happened in medieval—not  Renaissance—Italy. Without it, the modern company or corporation could not exist; and the stock market, as we know it, could not have come into being. Double-enty bookkeeping was invented in Italy, most probably in the 13th century.

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