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Fabio Besta: accounting thinker and accounting history pioneer

This paper seeks to reveal Fabio Besta (1845–1922) as an important accounting thinker. It attempts to underline his influence on accounting theory, and highlight his major impact on the development of accounting history knowledge. It is shown that Besta, through his accounting thought, founded on a value-based theory and an equity-centred accounting system (sistema patrimoniale), facilitated the shift from a personalistic to a non-personalistic, or materialistic, theory of accounts. It is suggested that Besta's La Ragioneria is a milestone in accounting history. In this work he anticipated the adoption of a comparative international approach to accounting history research, particularly in relation to the exploration of pre-Pacioli double-entry bookkeeping. His work was also important to the dissemination of knowledge about early double-entry bookkeeping practices, and thereby encouraged further investigations by the accounting history community.