Definition
A Latin term from Roman and civil law with two distinct historical meanings:
1. (Civil law) One to whom a legacy or bequest is made under a will; a legatee or legatary. The legatarius received a specific thing or sum of money by testamentary gift, as distinguished from the heres, or heir, who succeeded to the estate as a whole.
2. (Old European law) A legate, messenger, or envoy — typically a representative dispatched by a sovereign or ecclesiastical authority. This diplomatic sense is unrelated to inheritance and derives from a separate line of usage.
In modern legal writing, the term has been almost entirely supplanted by "legatee" (common law) or "legatary" (civil law jurisdictions), and LEGATARIUS appears in English-language sources principally when reading or citing Roman law texts, medieval treatises, or civil law authorities.
Common Confusion
LEGATARIUS and LEGATUS are frequently encountered in close proximity in historical sources, and the overlap in spelling causes confusion. LEGATUS, in Roman law, refers to an ambassador or envoy — corresponding to the second sense of LEGATARIUS above — but also, in some civil law usage, to the act of bequeathing itself. A researcher encountering either term must determine from context whether the subject is testamentary succession or diplomatic representation. Burrill's cross-reference to LEGATUS is an important navigational signal: the two entries should be read together.
Why It Matters in Research
The dual meaning of LEGATARIUS is the principal research trap. Primary sources from medieval and early modern European law — particularly those dealing with ecclesiastical or imperial authority — use the term in its diplomatic sense (legate, envoy), while Roman law texts and civil law treatises use it in its testamentary sense (legatee). A passage in a feudal or canon law source referring to a legatarius is almost certainly not about inheritance.
Researchers working in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed civil law jurisdictions will encounter the testamentary sense carried forward through civilian tradition, sometimes in Latin citations referencing the Institutes of Justinian. The standard citations — Inst. 2.20.2, 4, 5, 10 — point to the title "De Legatis" in Justinian's Institutes, which remains accessible and is the primary source for understanding the civil law concept. Bracton's folio 40 reference connects the term to its reception into English legal writing during the medieval period, making LEGATARIUS relevant to research in early English succession law as well.
For corpus researchers: when the term appears in Black's (either edition), it functions as a bridge citation pointing backward to Roman sources. The entries in both editions are substantively identical, suggesting the definition was stable and uncontested between editions — useful confirmation that no doctrinal shift occurred in that interval.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill's are in complete agreement on both meanings and on the supporting authorities. All three cite Inst. 2.20 and Bract. fol. 40 for the civil law (testamentary) sense, and Spelman for the diplomatic sense. The consistency across dictionaries and across editions of Black's indicates this was a settled reference term, not a contested concept.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the practical distinction within Roman law between different classes of legatarii — those receiving specific bequests (legatum per vindicationem), those receiving a personal obligation against the heir (legatum per damnationem), and others — a complexity that was significant in Roman practice but was collapsed into a single entry in all three dictionaries. Researchers working with original civil law sources should consult the Institutes directly for these distinctions.
None of the three dictionaries provide English-language case authority, which confirms that LEGATARIUS functioned primarily as a Latin term of art for locating and reading civil law sources, rather than as a term with an independent common law doctrinal life.
Jurisdictional Note
In American common law states, the operative term is "legatee," and LEGATARIUS appears only in historical or comparative law contexts. In Louisiana, the civilian tradition makes Latin civil law authorities more directly relevant, and researchers may encounter LEGATARIUS in early Louisiana jurisprudence or treatises drawing on French and Spanish civil law sources.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Legacies and Bequests; Roman Law of Succession