The double-entry system of accounting was first published in detailed form by Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar, in 1494. He is widely regarded as the "father of accounting" because he documented the double-entry system in his book "Summa de Arithmetica," which helped standardize the bookkeeping method used by Venetian merchants. While Pacioli is credited with codifying and popularizing the system, the method was already in use by merchants in Italy for centuries before, and Benedetto Cotrugli is believed to have described it in 1458. The earliest records of the system date back to the late 13th century, making Pacioli not the original inventor but the first to publish a comprehensive description of it.