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Abstract: This article discusses the «worth’s petrification» thesis of Roberto Lopez (1947) by analyzing logics and dynamics of Italian cathedrals’ financing in the medieval era. Through a huge comparison between several cases’ (Milan, Perugia, Florence, Orvieto, Torino and other towns), the paper shows that Italian urban elites considered building cathedrals a «rational» action allowing them to define common good, to create a common fiscal culture, to test a large variety of accounting and managerial innovations. Ultimately, for urban elites building cathedrals was a very interested social and economic investment.