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To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? An American couple witnesses a strange encounter in a restaurant while traveling in Italy. The explanation for what they see emerges from a manuscript that falls into their hands. The manuscript is the memoir of a man, dedicated to his family and to the protection and restoration of art and beauty,who gradually sinks into a moral and aesthetic abyss.
He attempts to explain his sins to his son.
The manuscript ultimately leads the couple into a dangerous situation. Read more Read less.
Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. She is the author of several books and articles in aesthetics. She resides with her husband in Minnesota and Florida. Product details File Size: March 9, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This historical novel provides an integrated web of global intrigue and suspense, set in Europe in the 20th century. The mystery unfolds around famous pieces of Renaissance Art, where the art itself becomes an enabler for international espionage. There is murder; there is love; there is family drama.
The reader is left to resolve the moral question of when and how art restoration for the purpose of preservation becomes forgery and stealing in the hands of art thieves. In the right hands would be an excellent movie! Consequently, if these entries relating to Simone are examples from a Ledger, there is a missing account the personal account of Simone , an incorrect balance on an account that should exist Ludovico , and two accounts that should not exist containing misleading balances Francesco and Martino. This is shown in Table 1, where it can be seen that five of the 10 entries indicate the wrong account to be used.
These five entries are highlighted in bold. Merchants who maintained their records using double entry in would have known how to record entries like these in their Ledger so as to produce ledger 11 This is indicated in Entry 3 a. During those two days, Simone owed the banker L18 S11 D6: They would not have set up an account for someone who deposited money for a third party.
The entries in their ledger would have been written so as to indicate that the accounts shown in the right-hand side of Table 1 were debited and credited, not those on the left-hand side. The available evidence indicates that they are not.
While all this analysis indicates that these are not examples of entries in a Ledger, the details within them are consistent with entries in a Ricordanze, as described by Pacioli in the unnumbered chapter that immediately precedes them. They cannot therefore be exemplars of how to make entries in that book. In addition, there are other reasons why these entries belong in a Ricordanze, not in a Ledger: According to Nobes , p.
Would there be any such benefit to a merchant if he made entries for these relatively small value and short-term events in his Ledger?
Would a merchant maintain such apparently short-term accounts in the Ledger and go through the process of making entries about them first in the Memoran- dum,13 then in the Journal, and then in the Ledger? Pacioli tells us in Chapter 35 of a record book that lies outside the double entry system where details of short-term loans are recorded: The entries contain sufficient information to enable correct double entries to be made in the Ledger subsequently should it become appropriate to do so e. According to Pacioli, a Ricordanze was used as an aide memoire for entering details of things that it would be advantageous to remember, such as promises to pay and details of short-term lending and borrowing.
This is the nature of these example entries. Pacioli also says that arrangements of this type should be entered in a Ricor- danze.
He never refers to them as being something to record in a Ledger. In this way, it was always possible to reconstruct the Ledger from the Journal should the Ledger be lost. These entries do not relate to activities of the core business of a merchant. In Renaissance Italy, details of such activities would often not be entered in the main ledger of the business Besta, , p.
There is no reason why a Ricordanze could not be used as a subsidiary ledger with its own double entry records of events such as these.
In this way, the merchant is able to keep control of his banking activities separated from his business activities. Making entries in paragraph form, as they are in this case, was normal for merchants and that structure was used even for records of personal information Arlinghaus, , p. Their being in paragraph form does not, in itself, signify that these are examples of entries in a Ledger, particularly as paragraph form was the norm for entries in a Ricordanze. Borrowers to whom loans are made and lenders from whom loans are obtained are a special i.
The headings of the two columns state that these are entries for debtors and creditors, not debits and credits, and the entries themselves are those relating to borrowers and lenders, and nothing else.
Entries for short-term lending or borrowing are, according to Pacioli, made in a Ricordanze. The net worth of the merchant is the same after the conclusion of these entries as it was at the start. In all instances, he is an intermediary.
As a result, any amounts outstanding are between the other parties and nothing to do with the merchant. Why would the merchant fill his Ledger with the details of all these events when it is unnecessary for him to do so? They could be recorded sepa- rately, more cheaply, more conveniently, and no less effectively in a Ricordanze. Lire, soldi, and denari were not the currency normally used when making entries in a Venetian Ledger in She has published on women writers in the first age of print, on literature and religious reform, including censorship and the first Indexes of Prohibited Books, and on poetry in and around convents.
Her most recent books are La donzelletta che nulla temea. Percorsi alternativi nella letteratura italiana tra Sette e Ottocento Rome: Her most recent publications are Il senso e le forme. Storia e Antologia della letteratura Italiana Florence: The Poetry Chapter 2: Maria Serena Sapegno Chapter 5: