Saint Anna’s Hospital in Ferrara (Italy): accounting and organization change during the Devolution

The aim of this paper is to give insights into the organizational and accounting changes of the Saint Anna’s Hospital in Ferrara (Italy), due to a wider environmental change. In 1598, the Dukedom of Ferrara was devolved to the Papal State bringing about an institutional and political shift that affected the overall society and its main institutions, such as the hospital. Research material was drawn from State and private archives, including the original XVI century accounting books, Statute and organization manuals. This paper seeks to contribute to the sparse literature on accounting practices in non-Anglo-Saxon countries in under-researched centuries and, more specifically, tries to maintain an internal perspective in understanding the responsibility definition among organizational levels and accounting development within Saint Anna’s Hospital before and after such an institutional change.