Copy 1, Volume 1

A history of inventions and discoveries / By John Beckmann ... Translated from the German, by William Johnston.

  • Johann Beckmann
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of inventions and discoveries / By John Beckmann ... Translated from the German, by William Johnston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/574 page 4
    James Peele, says, in his preface, that he had in- structed many mercantile people in this art, which had been long practised in other countries, though in England it was then undoubtedly new. One may readily believe, that Mr. Anderson was not ignorant of the difference between the method of book-keeping by single, and that by double-entry; but he produces nothing to induce us to believe that Peele taught the latter, and not the former; for what he says of debit and credit is of no im- portance, as it may be applied also to the method by single-entry. Of this Peele no mention is made in Arnes5 Typographical antiquities ; but in that work* there is an account of a still older treatise of book-keep- ing, entitled, A briefe instruction and manner how to keepe bookes ofaccompts, after the order of debitor and creditor, and as well for prope raccompts, par- tiblef 8$c. by three bookes, named the memorial/, journall, and leager. Newly augmented and set forth by John Meliis schole maister. London 1588. i 2mo. Meliis, in his preface, says that he is only the re-publisher of this treatise, which was before published at London in 1543 by a schoolmaster named Hugh Oldcastle. From the above title, and particularly from the three account books mentioned in it, I am inclined to believe that this work contained the true principles of book-keep- ing by double-entry. y
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