Economic management and accounting in medieval charitable institutions

Aim of the paper is to discuss about the existence of a parallel between the general evolution of the accounting techniques of late medieval firms and the evolution of the accounting systems of coeval charitable institutions. The answer that is given is not unique. Thank’s to the analysis of three different case studies (the order of the Trinitarian Fathers, the hospital of Santa Maria dell’Anima of Rome and the Roman lay brotherhood of San Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum) it emerges that, in the case of institutions whose main purpose was not the achievement of profit, as for hospitals and confraternities, it is more correct to make distinctions, identifying an evolution in the management models of charitable institutions that can be summarized in separate phases, which do not fit in a chronological rigid schedule.