testamentarium

Testamentarium is a Latin term used in historical legal and archival contexts to denote a will or testament, as well as a collection or repository of such documents. The root is testamentum, meaning “will” or “testimony,” with the -arium suffix indicating a place, thing, or collection associated with the root. In medieval and early modern Latin, testamentarium could refer to the instrument of bequest (the will), the act of bequeathing, a person performing testamentary duties, or a compilation of testaments.

In usage, testamentarium appears in Latin legal texts and in scholarly discussions of testamentary law and archival practice. In English-language scholarship, it is usually encountered only in historical or philological contexts, with the more common terms being will, testament, or testamentary.

The term is now rare in modern practice, and contemporary discussions typically favor the modern vocabulary of law and archives. When encountered in sources, testamentarium may denote either the document constituting a will or a collection or archive of wills and related probate records.

See also: testament, will, testamentary, probate, executor, archive, manuscript collection.