testaments of noblewomen in the holy roman empire When it comes to practical matters, noblewomen’s wills often include provisions for the place of burial, sometimes also the detailed arrangement of funeral ceremonies,51 and even for the design of the gravestone.52 Some testatrices explicitly directed their debts to be settled.53 Contrary to the general revocability of wills, the corroboratio usually reaffirms that the act should remain steadfast and unaltered, likely influenced by the typical corroboratio in transaction charters. Among the specific testamentary clauses, the codicil clause, which ensures the validity of the will in the event of a formal defect, allowing it to be reinterpreted as a codicil, a donationcausa mortis, a donationinter vivos, ora last will, is found mainly in notarial instruments after 1450.54 Sealed charters begin to adopt this formula a few decades later (nos. 31 and 44). An additional salvoorprovisoclause reserves the testatrix’s right to revoke, alter, or amend the whole or any part of the will,55 usually accompanied by a rebus sic stantibus clause, stating that if no changes occur, the will should stand as before. Witnesses, ranging from two to sixteen and from prominent individuals to servants, appear in thenarratioor corroboratiosections, depending on the type of document, and continue to play a significant role throughout the period under consideration. Women, often close relatives such as daughters or sisters, occasionally also ladies-in-waiting, may serve as witnesses, not only in exceptional circumstances such as imminent danger to life.56 The date and place are indicated in the proto- or eschatocoll, again according to the type of document, with sealed charters often omitting the location, while notarial instruments include the usual detailed information. 51 Nos. 31, 32, 34, 41, 44, 45. 52 Nos. 6, 22, 31. 53 E.g. nos. 2, 3, 6, 7, 19. 54 Nos. 30, 32, 37, 41, 43, see also the notarial ratification of no. 25. 55 Early examples in nos. 3 and 5; later ones in nos. 22, 30, 31, 33, 35, 43–45. 56 At least two of the wills that mention women as witnesses were not made immediately before death (nos. 2, 5); cf. nos. 10, 18, 32, 43. 66
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=