The historical research aims to collect and to spread information about far-off times, not completely diffused, of which there is trace in the documents and, most in general, in the past writings.
The historical analysis of an Organisation may be conducted by observing quite different aspects: political, cultural, economical, social and juridical. The study, for instance, may concern the evolutionary dynamics of the main events, the most important changes in the rules, the most characteristic anecdotes, the usages and customs of the people working in the Organisation, the procedures, etc.. Moreover, the Organisation may be investigated by examining the historical-accounting point of view. In that case, the research analyses and reconstructs the past through the study of the evolutionary dynamics of the accounting information systems of the Organisation examined.
The bookkeping information obtained in this study are expression of the involved reality of the company. Therefore, these data allow an indirect grasp of the managerial dynamics and the decisional policies of the Organisation in the investigated past times. Logically, the historical research must not be considered as an end in itself: the past examination must be looked like a necessary step to understand the present and to formulate reasonable assumption on the future.
The present work aims to reconstruct, in a systemic way, the salient features of the evolutionary process of the accounting information system of the "Università di Ferrara" (University of Ferrara) in the XIX century. This century has meant an important period for this Organisation: in fact, the historical events occured on those years have had interesting consequences both in the organisational structure - in particular, in the administrative roles - and in the bookkeeping instruments used in the praxis.
The research methodology consists in a case-study analysis. In particular, the aim of this paper has been pursued through a deductive and inductive method. In the deductive step, the documents of the "Università di Ferrara" of the XIX century have been collected and analised. In the inductive phase, the considerations formulated during the empirical analysis have been systematized.