Definition
A term from Roman civil law designating a great-great-grandmother's sister — that is, the sister of one's abavia (great-great-grandmother). The relationship places the abmatertera four degrees removed from the lineal ancestor and belongs to the class of collateral relatives recognized in Roman inheritance law. The term is also rendered matertera maxima in the sources, and appears in Bracton's adaptation of civil law to English usage as abmatertera magna.
The term has no practical operative meaning in modern law. It survives exclusively in historical legal sources treating Roman civil law, canon law tables of consanguinity, and early English common law texts derived from civilian tradition.
Common Confusion
The cluster of Latin kinship terms in Roman civil law — matertera (mother's sister; aunt), amita (father's sister), abmatertera (great-great-grandmother's sister), matertera magna (great-grandmother's sister), and matertera major (grandmother's sister) — is a frequent source of confusion in historical sources. These are terms of degree, not simply synonyms for "aunt." A researcher encountering any of these terms should identify the precise generational distance before drawing conclusions about inheritance rights or degrees of consanguinity. The variant matertera maxima is the same person as abmatertera; both labels appear in the Digest and may appear inconsistently across different editions and translations.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in three research contexts: Roman civil law inheritance tables, canon law consanguinity charts used to determine prohibited degrees of marriage, and early English common law texts — principally Bracton — that borrowed Roman kinship terminology to systematize English succession rules.
Researchers working in medieval English property law or ecclesiastical records may encounter the term in consanguinity analyses where the Church's prohibited degrees of marriage were at issue. The term itself signals that the author was working within or adapting a civilian framework rather than a purely customary one.
In the Law Mind corpus, abmatertera is most relevant as a navigational marker: its presence in a source indicates civilian influence and points toward Roman-derived inheritance or consanguinity doctrine rather than indigenous common law development. Researchers should not expect the term to appear in post-medieval English case law or American sources except in antiquarian or comparative law contexts.
The variant spelling abmatertero magna in Black's (1st ed.) appears to be a typographic error in the original — the feminine form abmatertera magna (as Burrill records it) is correct, consistent with Bracton's usage.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: the sister of one's great-great-grandmother (abavia soror). The sources also agree that the term is synonymous with matertera maxima and that Bracton uses the form abmatertera magna.
The primary divergence is textual: the three dictionaries cite slightly different passage numbers from the Institutes and Digest, reflecting either different editions of the Roman texts or transcription variation across editions of the dictionaries themselves. Black's 2nd ed. contains apparent OCR or typesetting corruption ("abavie soror," "matertera mazima," "Bract. fol. 68d") that should be treated as artifact rather than substantive difference. Burrill's citation to Inst. 3.6.4 versus Black's 1st ed. citation to Inst. 3.6.6 is a minor discrepancy common in pre-standardized citation practice for the Corpus Juris Civilis.
None of the historical dictionaries explain the practical inheritance consequences of the relationship in Roman or English law, nor do they situate the term within the broader table of collateral succession. Researchers needing that context must consult the Institutes (Book III, Title 6) and Digest (Title 38.10) directly, or secondary works on Roman succession law.
Jurisdictional Note
This term belongs to Roman civil law and has no independent standing in any modern common law or civil law jurisdiction. Its appearance in Bracton marks an early moment of civilian influence on English legal writing, but the term itself did not become part of operative English or American law.