Testaments as Historical Documents – Papers from the 17th Congress of the Commission Internationale de Diplomatique

What happens to the property of a deceased person? Who has the right to inheritance, and under which conditions? Who stipulates inheritance rights? These questions are as relevant nowadays as they were in the Middle Ages when the custom of making last wills spread all over the Latin West. Although the practice of making testaments became universal, forms and procedures varied considerably over time and in different regions. The twenty-seven articles in this volume present and analyse medieval wills from various points of view. Geographically, the volume covers a large area, from Southern Europe to Scandinavia, from Ireland in the West to Eastern Europe. The contributions reveal changes over time and space and accentuate different regional patterns and particularities: the degree of orality or literacy, the social status of testators, urban versus rural, and much else. The volume also suggests the potential of testaments as historical sources for studies on ownership, social networks, legal practices, and economic resources.