The complex power dynamics within a health care institution during the 15th and 18th centuries. The case of the Great and New Hospital of Palermo

Journal title CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE
Author/s Giovanna Centorrino
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/1
Language English Pages 49 P. 11-59 File size 243 KB
DOI 10.3280/CCA2021-001002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Introduction: Starting from the Middle Age, the need for discipline and adequate regulation and control has required the most important hospitals to produce spe-cial sets of rules, which helped an orderly performance of all administrative and assistance activities of these institutions. In this context, the paper is focused on the "Grande Ospedale e Nuovo" (GON) (today, the Benfratelli Hospital in Palermo), that has been equipped with a set of regulation (Chapters), since its origins in 1431. Aim of the work: The aim of the work is to offer an understanding of how account-ing supported the administration of GON within the power dynamic involving civil and religious authorities. Methodological approach: The paper is based on an archival research. A series of primary sources gathered from the historical archive of the GON have been ana-lysed. In particular, the Chapters issued in 1431, 1442, 1610, 1624 and 1722, which refers to accounting and accountability rules on both financial and non-financial information, have been fundamental primary sources for the investiga-tion. To reach the aim of this work, the study of GON Chapters has been comple-mented with the analysis of a complex of tools, care practices and other aspects of GON life. Main findings: The study permits to show the profound transformation of GON and its administrative changes. It elucidates the role of accounting in the complex power dynamic at work in that context, revealing not only a function of State appa-ratus of the hospital, but also showing how accounting supported the control ex-erted by the Pope, the Archbishop and the religious orders involved (Benedictines and Capuchins). Originality: Exploring the interrelation between accounting and State power in the health care field, the paper has offered a novel contribution related to the Italian context, showing the critical role of accounting practices in supporting the political and social reason of the institution, as connected to public and private support.

Keywords: accounting, health-care institutions, state apparatus.

  1. Aho J. (2005). Confession and Bookkeeping, The Religious, Moral, and Rhetorical Roots of Modern Accounting. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  2. Antonelli V., D’Alessio R., Rossi R. and Cafaro E.M. (2017). Accounting in hybrid forms of capitalist/socialist enterprises: A multiple interpretative approach to the Royal Factory of Silk of San Leucio, 1802-1826. Accounting History, 22(3): 274-300. DOI: 10.1177/1032373217694652
  3. Antonelli V., Funnell W., D’Alessio R. (2019). Accounting and psychiatric power in Italy: The royal insane hospital of Turin in the 19th century. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 61: 1-21
  4. Armstrong P. (1994). The influence of Michael Foucault on accounting research. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 5(1): 25-55.
  5. Assereto G. (2011). Per la comune salvezza dal morbo contagioso. I controlli di sanità nella Repubblica di Genova. Novi Ligure: Città del silenzio.
  6. Aymard M. (1972). Bilancio di una lunga crisi finanziaria. Rivista storica italiana, LXXXIV(1): 1008.
  7. Bentham J. (1791). Panopticon or the Inspection-House. London: T Payne.
  8. Bianchi F., Słoń M. (2006). Le Riforme Ospedaliere del Quattrocento in Italia nell’Europa Centrale. Ricerche di Storia Sociale e Religiosa, XXXV(69): 7-45.
  9. Bigoni M. and Funnell W. (2015), Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 27: 160-176.
  10. Blasi S. M. (1791). Memorie del beato Giuliano Majali monaco del monastero di S. Martino di Palermo raccolte dalle originali carte dell’archivio del detto monastero, e lette nell’Accademia del Buon gusto di detta capitale dal p.d. Salvatore M. Di Blasi palermitano casinese. Palermo.
  11. Bonaffini G. (1980). Per una storia delle istituzioni ospedaliere a Palermo tra XV e XIX secolo. Palermo: I.L.A.
  12. Bracci E., Maran L. and Vagnoni E. (2010). Saint Anna’s Hospital in Ferrara, Italy: Accounting and organizational change during the Devolution. Accounting History, 15(4): 463-504. DOI: 10.1177/1032373210379757
  13. Burchell S., Clubb C. and Hopwood A.G. (1985). Accounting in its Social Context: Towards a History of Value Added in the United Kingdom. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 10(4): 381-413. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(85)90002-9
  14. Cairns B., Harris M. and Hutchison R. (2007). Sharing God’s love or meeting government goals? Local churches and public policy implementation. Policy & Politics, 35(3): 413-432. DOI: 10.1332/030557307781571614
  15. Cancila R. (2016). Salute Pubblica e Governo dell’emergenza: La Peste del 1575 a Palermo. Mediterranea, Ricerche storiche, XIII(37). DOI: 10.19229/1828-230X/37122016
  16. Cancilia O. (1995). Storia dell’Industria in Sicilia. Editori Laterza.
  17. Carmona S., Ezzamel M. and Gutiérrez F. (1998). Towards an institutional analysis of accounting change in the royal tobacco factory of Seville. Accounting Historians Journal, 25(1): 115-147. DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.25.1.115
  18. Carnegie G.D. (1997). Pastoral Accounting in Colonial Australia: A Case Study of Unregulated Accounting. New York: Garland Publishing.
  19. Carnegie G.D. and Napier C.J. (1996). Critical and interpretive histories: insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 9(3): 7-39. DOI: 10.1108/09513579610121956
  20. Carta G. (1969). Il sistema ospedaliero nel centro storico di Palermo. Palermo: Luxograph.
  21. Cooper D.J. (1981). A Social and Organisational View of Management Accounting. In Bromwich M. and Hopwood A.G. (eds.), Essays in British Accounting Research. London: Pitman.
  22. Cooper D.J. and Sherer M.J. (1983). The value of corporate accounting reports: Arguments for a political economy of accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 9(3-4): 207-232. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(84)90008-4
  23. Cordery C. J. (2006). Hallowed treasures: sacred, secular, and Wesleyan Methodists in New Zealand (1819-1840). Accounting History, 11(2): 199-220. DOI: 10.1177/1032373206063114
  24. Cordery C. J. (2019). The state relationship with religion: Defined through disciplinary procedures of accounting and regulation. Accounting History, 24(3): 356-382.
  25. Coronella S., Antonelli V., and Lombrano A. (2017). A pioneering era of accounting history: The contributions of nineteenth-century Italian literature and its enduring dissemination around the globe. Accounting History, 22(2): 214-243. DOI: 10.1177/1032373216662486
  26. Correnti S. (1974). Fondamenti teorici ed orientamenti bibliografici per lo studio della storia di Sicilia - 2 ed. Catania: Nuova Trinacria
  27. Dean M. (1996). Putting the technological into government. History of the Human Sciences, 9(3): 47-68. DOI: 10.1177/095269519600900303
  28. Di Blasi S. M. (1791). Memorie del beato Giuliano Majali monaco del monastero di S. Martino di Palermo raccolte dalle originali carte dell’archivio del detto monastero, e lette nell’Accademia del Buon gusto di detta capitale dal p.d. Salvatore M. Di Blasi palermitano casinese, Palermo.
  29. Di Pietra R., Russo S. (2018). Accounting and Power Relationships at the origin of the Venetian Hospital of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. In Sargiacomo M., Coronella S., Mio C., Sostero U., Di Pietra R. (eds.). The Origins of Accounting Culture: The Venetian Connection. New Work: Routledge.
  30. Diana E. (2003). Dinamiche fondiarie e caratteri insediativi degli ospedali tra XIV e XVI secolo: il caso fiorentino. Medicina & Storia, III(6): 37-71. DOI: 10.1400/21613
  31. Evans L. (2010). Observations on the Changing Language of Accounting, Accounting History, 15(4): 439-462. DOI: 10.1177/1032373210373619
  32. Ferngren G. B. and Amundsen D. W. (1996). Medicine and Christianity in the Roman Empire. Compatibilities and Tensions. In Haase W. (ed.). Aufstieg und Nieder- gang der römischen Welt II.37.3. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.
  33. Friedland R. and Alford R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In: Powell W.W. and Di Maggio P.J. (eds). The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  34. Fúnez D. R. (2005). The interface of disciplinary practices and accounting: the case of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville, 1761-1790. Accounting History, 10(1): 71-97. DOI: 10.1177/103237320501000104
  35. Funnell W., Antonelli V., D’Alessio R. and Rossi R. (2017). Accounting for madness. The “Real Casa dei Matti” of Palermo 1824-1860. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 30(5): 1111-1141. DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-05-2015-2047
  36. Gazzini M. (2014). Verso la riforma ospedaliera. Un consilium sapientis del 1349. In: Honos alit artes. Studi per il settantesimo compleanno di Mario Ascheri. I. La formazione del diritto comune, Giuristi e diritti in Europa (secoli XII-XVIII). Firenze: Firenze University Press.
  37. Golder B. (2007). Foucault and the genealogy of pastoral power. Radical Philosophy Review, 10(2): 157-176.
  38. Gomes D. (2008). The Interplay of Conceptions of Accounting and Schools of Thought in Accounting History. Accounting History, 13(4): 479-509. DOI: 10.1177/1032373208095480
  39. Gomes D., Carnegie G.D. and Rodrigues L.L. (2008). Accounting change in central government: The adoption of double entry bookkeeping at the Portuguese Royal Treasury (1761). Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21(8): 1144-1184. DOI: 10.1108/09513570810918797
  40. Gomes D., Carnegie, G.D., Napier, C.J., Parker L.D. and West B. (2011). Does accounting history matter?. Accounting History, 16(4): 389-402. DOI: 10.1177/1032373211417993
  41. Graham C. (2010). Accounting and the construction of the retired person. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35(1): 23-46.
  42. Grey C. (1994). Debating Foucault: A critical reply to Neimark. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 5(1): 5-24.
  43. Gummesson E. (1991). Qualitative Methods in Management Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
  44. Hardy L. and Ballis H. (2005). Does one Size Fit All? The Sacred and Secular Divide Revisited with Insights from Niebuhr’s Typology of Social Action. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 18(2): 238-254. DOI: 10.1108/09513570510588742
  45. Hopwood A.G. (1987). The Archaeology of Accounting Systems. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12(3): 207-234. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(87)90038-9
  46. Hopwood A.G. (1992). Accounting Calculation and the Shifting Sphere of the Economic. European Accounting Review, 1(1): 125-143. DOI: 10.1080/09638189200000007
  47. Hopwood A. G. (1990). Accounting and organization change. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 3(1): 7-17. DOI: 10.1108/09513579010145073
  48. Hoskin K. (1994). Boxing clever: For, against and beyond Foucault in the battle for accounting theory. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 5(1): 57-85.
  49. Hoskin K.W. and Macve R.H. (1986). Accounting and the examination: a genealogy of disciplinary power. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 11(2): 105-136. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(86)90027-9
  50. Hoskin K.W. and Macve R.H. (2000). Knowing more as knowing less? Alternative histories of cost and management accounting in the US and the UK. Accounting Historians Journal, 27(1): 91-149. DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.27.1.91
  51. Hoskin, K. W., & Macve R. H. (1988). The genesis of accountability: The west point connections. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(1): 37-73.
  52. Irvine H. J. (2005). Balancing money and mission in a local church budget. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 18(2): 211-237.
  53. Jacobs K. (2005). The sacred and the secular: examining the role of accounting in the religious context. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 18(29): 189-210.
  54. Jacobs K. (2005). The sacred and the secular: examining the role of accounting in the religious context, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 18(2): 189-210. DOI: 10.1108/09513570510588724
  55. Jacobs K. and Walker S.P. (2004). Accounting and accountability in the Iona Community. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 17(3): 361-381. DOI: 10.1108/09513570410545786
  56. Jones J.M. (2010). Sources of power and infrastructural conditions in medieval governmental accounting. Accounting Organizations and Society, 35(1): 81-94.
  57. Jones R.H. (1989). On local government accounting history: the case of central establishment charges. Financial Accountability and management, 5(2): 59-71.
  58. Lai A., Leoni G. and Stacchezzini R. (2012). Governmentality rationales and calculative devices: The rejection of a seventeenth-century territorial barter proposed by the King of Spain. Accounting History, 17(3-4): 369-392. DOI: 10.1177/1032373212443226
  59. Laughlin R.C. (1987). Accounting systems in organizational contexts: A case for critical theory. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12(5): 479-502. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(87)90032-8
  60. Lusiani M., Vedovato M. and Pancot C. (2019). Governance and accounting practices in hybrid organizations: Insights from a sixteenth-century charity in Venice. Accounting History, 24(3): 444-463.
  61. Mantese G. (2002). Memorie storiche della Chiesa vicentina dal 1700 al 1866. Accademia Olimpica Vicenza.
  62. Maran L., Bracci E. and Funnell W. (2016). Accounting and the management of power: Napoleon’s occupation of the commune of Ferrara (1796-1799), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 34: 60–78.
  63. Martinelli, A. (1983). The ledger of Cristianus Lomellinus and Dominicus de Garibaldo, Stewards of the City of Genoa (1340-41). Abacus, 19(2): 83-118.
  64. Mazzè A., a cura di (1992). L’edilizia sanitaria a Palermo dal XVI al XIX secolo: L’Ospedale Grande e Nuovo. Palermo: Accademia delle scienze mediche.
  65. McKinlay A. and Pezet E. (2010). Accounting for Foucault. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 21(6): 486-495.
  66. McWatters C.S. and Lemarchand Y. (2013). Merchant networks and accounting discourse: the role of accounting transactions in network relations. Accounting History Review, 23(1): 49-83.
  67. Miley F. M. & Read A. F. (2016). Spies, debt and the well-spent penny: accounting and the Lisle agricultural estates 1533-1540. Accounting History Review, 26(2): 83-105. DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2016.1187638
  68. Miley F., Read A. (2016). After the quake: The complex dance of local government, national government and accounting. Accounting History, 18(4): 447–471. DOI: 10.1177/1032373213505742
  69. Miley F., Read A. (2016). Go gentle babe: Accounting and the London Foundling Hospital 1757-97. Accounting History, 1-18,
  70. Miley F.M., Read A.F. (2014). Cartoons as alternative accounting: front-line supply in the First World War. Accounting History Review, 24(2-3): 161-189. DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2014.967932
  71. Miller P. (1990). On the interrelations between accounting and the state. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 15(4): 315-338. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(90)90022-M
  72. Miller P. and O’Leary T. (1987). Accounting and the construction of the governable person. Accounting, Organization and Society, 12(3): 235-265. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(87)90039-0
  73. Miller P. and Rose N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1): 1-31. DOI: 10.1080/03085149000000001
  74. Mills P.A. (1989). Words and the Study of Accounting History. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2(1): 21-35.
  75. Nahapiet J. (1980). The Roles of Accounting in Organizations and Society. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5(1): 5-27. DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(80)90017-3
  76. Napier C. J. (2001). Accounting history and accounting progress. Accounting History, 6(2): 7-31. DOI: 10.1177/103237320100600202
  77. Napier C.J. (1989). Research Directions in Accounting History. The British Accounting Review, 21(3): 237-254. DOI: 10.1016/0890-8389(89)90095-4
  78. Napier C.J. (2006). Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 31 (4)5): 445-507.
  79. Neimark M.K. (1994). Regicide revisited: Marx, Foucault and accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 5(1): 87-108.
  80. Nikidehaghani, N. and Hui F. (2017). Accounting and accountability for disability benefits in Australia, 1909-1961. Accounting History, 22(3): 348-369.
  81. Nikidehaghani N., Cortese C., and Hui-Truscott F. (2019). Accounting and pastoral power in Australian disability welfare reform. Critical Perspectives on Accounting,
  82. Parker L.D. (1999). Historiography for the New Millennium: Adventures in Accounting and Management. Accounting History, 4(2): 11-42. DOI: 10.1177/103237329900400204
  83. Piccinni G. (2016). I modelli ospedalieri e la loro circolazione dall’Italia all’Europa alla fine del Medioevo. In Civitas Bendita: encrucijada de las relaciones sociales y de poder en la ciudad medieval, a cura di G. Cavero Dominguez, Leòn, Universidad de Leòn.
  84. Piccinni G. (2016). Ospedali, affari e credito prima del Monte di Pietà. Reti Medievali Rivista, 17(1), 133-154. DOI: 10.6092/1593-2214/499
  85. Previts G.J., Parker L.D. and Coffman E.N. (1990). An Accounting Historiography: Subject Matter and Methodology. Abacus, 26(1): 136-158.
  86. Prieto B., Maté L. and Tua, J. (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 accounts books. Accounting History, 11(2): 221-256. DOI: 10.1177/1032373206063115
  87. Pullan B. (2005). Catholics, Protestants, and the poor in early modern Europe. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 35(3): 441-456. DOI: 10.1162/0022195052564315
  88. Pullan B. (1976). Catholics and the Poor in Early Modern Europe. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 26: 15-34. DOI: 10.2307/3679070
  89. Quattrone P. (2004). Accounting for God. Accounting and Accountability Practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries). Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29(7): 647-683.
  90. Quattrone P. (2015). Governing Social Orders, Unfolding Rationality, and Jesuit Accounting Practices: A Procedural Approach to Institutional Logics. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(3): 411-445. DOI: 10.1177/0001839215592174
  91. Quattrone P. (2009). Books to be practiced: Memory, the power of the visual, and the success of accounting, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(1): 85-118.
  92. Riccaboni A., Giovannoni E., Giorgi A. and Moscadelli S. (2006). Accounting and power: evidence from the fourteenth century. Accounting History, 11(1): 41-62. DOI: 10.1177/1032373206060082
  93. Riva M.A. and Cesana G. (2013). The charity and the care: the origin and the evolution of hospitals. European Journal of Internal Medicine, 24(1): 1-4.
  94. Roberts R. (1991). The possibilities of accounting. Accounting, Organization and Society, 16 (4): 355-368.
  95. Robson K. and Cooper D. J. (1989). Power and Management Control. In: Chua W.F., Lowe T. and Puxty T. (eds.). Critical Perspectives in Management Control. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  96. Rossi R. (2014). Organizzazione, amministrazione e gestione delle strutture sanitarie nella Sicilia di età moderna: l’ospedale di santa Caterina pro infirmis di Monreale tra XVI e XVII secolo. Mediterranea - ricerche storiche, XI(31): 285-308.
  97. Sandri L. (2001). Ospedali e assistenza. In: Ciliberto M. (ed.). Storia della civiltà toscana. Il Rinascimento. Firenze: Le Monnier.
  98. Sandri L. (2005). La gestione dell’ospedale. Regolamenti e cariche istituzionali a Firenze tra XV e XVI secolo. In: Ghidetti E. and Diana E. (eds.). La bellezza come terapia. Arte e assistenza nell’ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova a Firenze. Firenze: Polistampa.
  99. Sangster A. (2016). The Genesis of Double Entry Bookkeeping. The Accounting Review, 91(1): 299-315.
  100. Sargiacomo M. (2006). Using Accounting Records to Enhance an Understanding of a Seventeenth-century Italian Feudal Community: The Case of the Commune of Penne (1664–90). Accounting History, 11(4): 475-502. DOI: 10.1177/1032373206068707
  101. Sargiacomo M. (2008). Accounting and the ‘Art of Government’: Margaret of Austria in Abruzzo (1539-86). European Accounting Review, 17(4): 667-695. DOI: 10.1080/09638180802324401
  102. Sargiacomo M. (2009). Accounting for the “Good Administration of Justice”: The Farnese State of Abruzzo in the Sixteenth Century. Accounting History, 14(3): 235-67. DOI: 10.1177/1032373209335290
  103. Sargiacomo M. (2009a). Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Allen Lane, London, 1977, Trans. by Alan Sheridan. Journal of Management and Governance, 13(3): 269-280.
  104. Sargiacomo M., and Gomes, D. (2011). Accounting and accountability in local government: Contributions from accounting history research. Accounting History, 16(3): 253-290. DOI: 10.1177/1032373211407043
  105. Sargiacomo M. (2001) Pro and Contro delle procedure contabili dei Monaci Benedettini nel XVI secolo, Paper presented at the VI Convegno Nazionale - Società Italiana di Storia della Ragioneria, Caserta.
  106. Servalli S. (2013). The interface of power and charity in the government of poor: A case from the Italian context in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26(8): 1306-1341.
  107. Stacchezzini R. (2012). Accounting e potere. Il contributo interpretative del governmentality framework. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  108. Stewart R. E. (1992). Pluralizing our Past: Foucault in Accounting History. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 5(2): 57-73. DOI: 10.1108/09513579210011862
  109. Tomasin G. (1982). La nascita della professione contabile nel XVI secolo a Venezia. Venezia: Istituto per la Revisione e l’Organizzazione.
  110. Tosh J. (1991). The pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History. New York: Longman.
  111. Walker S.P. (2008). Accounting, Paper Shadows and the Stigmatised Poor. Accounting Organizations and Society, 33(4-5): 453-487.
  112. Walker S. P. (2004). Expense, social and moral control. Accounting and the administration of the old poor law in England and Wales. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 23(2): 85-127.
  113. Zan L. (2004). Accounting and management discourse in proto-industrial settings: the Venice Arsenal in the turn of the 16th century. Accounting and Business Research, 34(2): 145-175.

Giovanna Centorrino, The complex power dynamics within a health care institution during the 15th and 18th centuries. The case of the Great and New Hospital of Palermo in "CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE" 1/2021, pp 11-59, DOI: 10.3280/CCA2021-001002