reinhard härtel 81 hearea investigated includes parts of Austria, the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and the Republic of Slovenia. This area to a great extent is equivalent to the dioceses of the medieval ecclesiastical metropolitan provinces of Salzburg and Aquileia. A remarkable five percent of all documents examined (about 8 000) include testamentary dispositions. The north is extremely rich in documents, the south surprisingly poor. A closer look shows that the reason for this is the different textual traditions. All statistical calculations are significantly affected by the grey areas between ‘real’ testamentary dispositions and other legal transactions. Many other donations are limited by reservations in favour of third parties, and these reservations can certainly be understood as testamentary dispositions. More than nine-tenths of all attested testators are secular, about onetenth of whom are women. TheTraditionsbücherof the north also convey testamentary dispositions from social inferiors who usually do not appear as issuers of documents. Considering bequeathed items, real estate constitutes the overwhelming majority, particularly in the north. A disposition prepared so late as on the deathbed predominates by far, at least in the north. Not infrequently it is recorded that the testator faces a dangerous undertaking. Among the more than 400 documents, there are only about 20 wills roughly in the modern sense of the word, mostly from the south. In about half of the documents examined, the testamentary disposition appears to be linked to specific conditions. In the north, most of the time the testator was not the one who himself prepared the documentation. Around one-fifth of the relevant documentation also contains information about the actual execution of the respective testamentary disposition. Here, least of all was it possible to develop a special form of written testamentary disposition. Where there are sealed documents, high-ranking individuals appear as issuers certifying the will of a testator. The notarial deeds of the south also contain T Abstract
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