The relation between accounting and power in religious institutions has received little attention from accounting historians. The present article therefore studies the case of the Santa Maria della Scala monastery in Verona (Italy) during the Middle Ages to explore whether and how accounting might support the domination structure and facilitate power relations within the organisation. A documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources confirms that accounting played a key role in reinforcing both hierarchical and horizontal power relations among friars.
AlbertiGBLeardiniCRossiG (2008) L’azienda convento nei registri contabili di Santa Maria della Scala a Verona. 1345–1355. Padova: Cedam.
2.
AlbertiGBLeardiniCRossiG (2010) I registri di entrata e uscita del convento di Santa Maria della Scala a Verona: l’attività di rendicontazione a supporto del controllo e dell’amministrazione negli enti religiosi. Contabilità e cultura aziendaleX(1): 32–55.
3.
BacharachSBLawlerEJ (1980) Power and Politics in Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
4.
BandiniG (1984) Archivi e chiesa. Lineamenti di archivistica ecclesiastica e religiosa. Bologna: Patron.
5.
BarbieriG (1988) Economia, finanza e tenore di vita nella Verona scaligera. In: VaraniniGM (ed.) Gli Scaligeri (1277–1387). Milano: Mondadori, pp.329–341.
6.
BenassiVDiasOJFaustiniFM (1984) I Servi di Maria. Breve storia dell’ordine. Roma: Le Missioni dei Servi di Maria.
7.
BirkettWPEvansE (2005) Theorising professionalisation: A model for organising and understanding histories of the professionalising activities of occupational associations of accountants. Accounting History10(1): 99–127.
8.
BismanJE (2012) Surveying the landscape: The first 15 years of Accounting History as an international journal. Accounting History17(1): 5–34.
9.
BoothP (1993) Accounting in churches: A research framework and agenda. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal6(4): 37–67.
10.
CarmonaSEzzamelM (2006) Accounting and religion: A historical perspective. Accounting History11(2): 117–127.
11.
CarmonaSEzzamelMGutiérrezF (1997) Control and cost accounting practices in the Spanish Royal Tobacco Factory. Accounting, Organizations and Society22(5): 411–446.
12.
CarnegieGDNapierCJ (1996) Critical and interpretative histories: Insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal9(3): 7–39.
13.
CiteroniR (1998) L’ordine dei servi di Santa Maria nel Veneto. Tre insediamenti trecenteschi: Venezia (1316), Verona (1324), Treviso (1346). Roma: Edizioni Marianum.
14.
CiteroniR (2006) Il convento di Santa Maria della Scala e la società veronese. In: SandriniA (ed.) Santa Maria della Scala. La grande “fabbrica” dei Servi di Maria in Verona. Verona: Frati Servi di Maria, pp.101–122.
15.
CorderyC (2006) Hallowed treasures: Sacred, secular and the Wesleyan Methodists in New Zealand 1819–1840. Accounting History11(2): 199–220.
16.
Dal PinoAM (1965) Le Constitutiones antiquae fratrum servorum Sanctae Mariae. Presentazione ed analisi. Roma: Edizioni Marianum.
17.
Dal PinoF (1972) I frati servi di Maria dalle origini all’approvazione (1233 ca.–1304). I: Storiografia–Fonti–Storia. Louvain: Publications Universitaires de Louvain, pp.759–1339.
18.
De Sandre GaspariniG (1988) Istituzioni ecclesiastiche, religiose e assistenziali nella Verona scaligera tra potere signorile e società. In: VaraniniGM (eds.) Gli Scaligeri (1277–1387). Milano: Mondadori, pp.393–403.
19.
DobieA (2008) The development of financial management and control in monastic houses and estates in England c. 1200–1540. Accounting, Business & Financial History18(2): 141–159.
20.
FloriL (1636) Trattato del modo di tenere il libro doppio domestico con suo essemplare composto dal P. Lodovico Flori della Compagnia di Gesù per uso delle case e dei collegi della medesima Compagnia nel Regno di Sicilia. Palermo: Decio Cirillo.
21.
GiddensA (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
22.
JacobsK (2005) The sacred and the secular: Examining the role of accounting in the religious context. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal18(2): 189–209.
23.
JacobsKWalkerSP (2004) Accounting and accountability in the Iona Community. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal17(3): 361–381.
24.
KanterRM (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.
25.
LaiALeoniGStacchezziniR (2012), Governmentality rationales and calculative devices: The rejection of a seventeenth-century territorial barter proposed by the King of Spain. Accounting History17(3–4): 369–392.
26.
LandiF (1996) Il paradiso dei monaci. Accumulazione e dissoluzione dei patrimoni del Clero regolare in età moderna. Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica.
27.
LaughlinR (1988) Accounting in its social context: An analysis of the accounting systems in the Church of England. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal1(2): 19–42.
28.
LeardiniCRossiGCanteleSFilippiVMoggiS (2012) Contabilità e Ordine Generale dei Servi di Maria nel Medioevo. Roma: RIREA Historica.
29.
MacintoshNBScapensRW (1990) Structuration theory in management accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society15(5): 455–477.
30.
MacintoshNBScapensRW (1991) Management accounting and control systems: A structuration theory analysis. Journal of Management Accounting Research13: 131–158.
31.
MintzbergH (1979) The Structuring of Organizations: A Synthesis of the Research. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
32.
MintzbergH (1984) Power and organization life cycles. The Academy of Management Review9(2): 207–224.
33.
PastoreAGarbellottiM (2001) L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino.
34.
PietraA (1586) Indirizzo degli economi o sia ordinatissima istruttione de regolamente formare qualunque scrittura in un libro doppio. Aggiuntovi l’essemplare di un Libro nobile co ‘l suo Giornale ad uso della Congregation Cassinese dell’Ordine in San Benedetto. Mantova: Francesco Osanna.
35.
PrietoBMatèLTuaJ (2006) The accounting records of the Monastery of Silos throughout the eighteenth century: The accumulation and management of its patrimony in the light of its accounting books. Accounting History11(2): 221–256.
36.
QuattroneP (2004) Accounting for God: Accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI–XVII centuries). Accounting, Organizations and Society29(7): 327–360.
37.
RiccaboniAGiovannoniEGiorgiAMoscadelliS (2006) Accounting and power: Evidence from the fourteenth century. Accounting History11(1): 41–62.
38.
RusselB (1938) Power: A New Social Analysis. London: George Allen and Unwin.
39.
SargiacomoM (2008) Accounting and the “art of government”: Margaret of Austria in Abruzzo (1539–86). European Accounting Review17(4): 667–695.
40.
SargiacomoM. (2009) Accounting for the “good administration of justice”: The Farnese state of Abruzzo in the sixteenth century. Accounting History14(3): 235–267.
41.
StacchezziniR (2012) Accounting e potere. Il contributo interpretativo del governmentality framework. Milano: Franco Angeli.
42.
SwansonGAGardnerJC (1988) Not-for-profit accounting and auditing in the early eighteenth century: Some archival evidence. The Accounting ReviewLXIII(3): 436–447.
43.
VaraniniGM (1988) Gli Scaligeri, il ceto dirigente veronese, l’élite internazionale. In: VaraniniGM (ed.) Gli Scaligeri (1277–1387). Milano: Mondadori, pp.113–124.
44.
WalkerSP (2005) Accounting in history. Accounting Historians Journal32(2): 233–259.
45.
WeberM (1978) Economy and Society,RothGWittichC (eds). Berkeley: University of California Press.
