Definition
In civil law, *adbcendentes* (more commonly rendered as *ascendentes*) refers to ascendants — that is, those persons from whom an individual is lineally descended in the direct upward line: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. The term designates the class of relatives standing above an individual in the line of descent, as distinguished from descendants (those below) and collaterals (those branching sideways from a common ancestor).
The term appears in Roman civil law sources principally in the context of marriage prohibitions and inheritance rules. Ascendants were categorically barred from marrying their own descendants, regardless of degree, a prohibition regarded as absolute and rooted in natural law principles.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily an artifact of civil law Latin as it appears in Digest and Code citations transmitted through early Anglo-American legal dictionaries. Researchers encountering *adbcendentes* in historical sources should treat it as a variant or typographic rendering of *ascendentes*, the standard Latin form. The "db" in place of "sc" is almost certainly a compositor's error or a transcription anomaly that was carried forward into Black's supplemental material without correction.
The practical research significance is narrow: the term itself will not appear in primary legal authorities under this spelling. Any search for the underlying legal concept — ascendants as a class in inheritance, marriage prohibition, or intestacy law — should be conducted under *ascendentes*, *ascendants*, or the relevant vernacular equivalent in the jurisdiction under study.
Researchers working in civil law traditions, Louisiana law, or comparative succession law will find the substantive concept highly relevant. The Digest passage cited (Dig. 23, 2, 68) concerns the law of marriage and the prohibition against marrying within the line of ascent or descent. The Code passage (Cod. 5, 5, 6) addresses similar restrictions in Justinianic law. These are the authoritative sources for the underlying doctrine; the dictionary entry is useful only as a pointer toward them.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) provides the sole dictionary source for this exact spelling. The entry is brief — identifying the term as civil law Latin for "ascendants" and citing two Justinian corpus passages — and offers no additional doctrinal elaboration. The entry reads as a minimal gloss rather than a substantive definition, suggesting Black's included it primarily for completeness in covering civil law vocabulary encountered in older authorities.
No other major historical legal dictionaries (Bouvier, Tomlin, Burrill, Jacob) appear to carry this precise spelling, further supporting the conclusion that *adbcendentes* is a variant or corrupted form rather than an independently recognized term of art. The underlying concept of ascendants as a legally defined relational class is, of course, thoroughly treated across civil law commentary and in Bouvier's dictionary under *ascendants*.
The historical dictionaries collectively agree on the substantive meaning: ascendants form a protected and restricted class in civil law, relevant to both marriage law and succession. What the sources do not address is the spelling discrepancy, which falls to the modern researcher to navigate.
Jurisdictional Note
The concept of ascendants as a defined legal class retains practical significance in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and other jurisdictions with civil law inheritance traditions, where forced heirship and intestate succession rules still formally distinguish ascendants from other heirs. In common law jurisdictions, the same relational class is addressed without the civil law terminology.