Definition
In Roman civil law, the *matertera maxima* is the "greatest aunt" — specifically, a great-great-grandmother's sister. She stands four degrees removed in the ascending maternal collateral line, making her one of the most remote named female relatives in the Roman system of cognatic succession. The term also encompasses a father's or mother's "greater aunt" (*patris vel matris matertera major*), referring to the sister of a great-grandparent on the maternal side. The corresponding Latin designation found in the Digest is *abmatertera*.
The term belongs to a precise taxonomy of Roman kinship vocabulary used primarily to determine succession rights and the obligations of intestate heirs under the civil law. Unlike modern common law systems, which tend to collapse distant collateral relatives into undifferentiated categories, Roman law assigned specific Latin labels to each degree of kinship. *Matertera maxima* occupies the outermost named position in the aunt-line of that system.
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Recognized Forms
/ SUBTYPES
The Roman kinship ladder for the maternal aunt line runs as follows, from nearest to most remote:
- *Matertera* — a mother's sister; the standard aunt
- *Matertera magna* — a great-aunt; a grandmother's sister
- *Matertera major* — a greater aunt; a great-grandmother's sister
- *Matertera maxima* — the greatest aunt; a great-great-grandmother's sister (*abaviae soror*)
The corresponding term *abmatertera* appears in the same passage of the Digest (Dig. 38.10.3) as an alternate name for the same relation.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources discussing Roman civil law inheritance and cognatic kinship. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in three contexts: (1) treatises on civil law succession translating or explicating the Digest; (2) ecclesiastical law discussions of prohibited degrees of consanguinity, which borrowed Roman kinship nomenclature; and (3) Scottish, Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed civil-common law jurisdictions where civilian inheritance concepts survived into modern practice.
The principal research trap is terminological compression. Historical sources and secondary treatises are inconsistent about whether *matertera major* and *matertera maxima* refer to the same degree of relation or successive ones. Black's and Burrill's both gloss *matertera maxima* as covering both "a great-great-grandmother's sister" and "a father's or mother's greater aunt (*matertera major*)," which suggests some conflation or contextual flexibility in the original sources. Bouvier offers the simpler definition without the double gloss. Researchers relying on any single dictionary entry for precision in a succession dispute under civil law doctrine should go directly to Dig. 38.10 rather than trusting secondary paraphrase.
The *abmatertera* cross-reference in Burrill's points to Dig. 38.10.3, while the primary *matertera maxima* definition references Dig. 38.10.10.17. Both passages are worth consulting together, as the Digest's treatment of remote collaterals spans multiple sections and the nomenclature shifts across them.
For researchers working in Louisiana succession law or comparative civil law, the Roman kinship framework matters because courts and practitioners in those jurisdictions historically used the civilian degree-counting method (Roman numerals) rather than the common law canon law method, and the specific Latin names carried legal weight in parsing intestate shares.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's, Bouvier's, and Burrill's are in agreement on the core definition: a great-great-grandmother's sister. All three treat the term as a civil law term of art with no common law analogue.
Burrill's is the most complete of the three, adding the *abmatertera* cross-reference and the dual Digest citations, making it the most useful starting point for a researcher needing to locate the primary source. Black's mirrors Burrill's substance closely. Bouvier's is unusually spare here — a single line without citation — and should not be relied upon as a standalone source for this entry.
None of the three dictionaries discuss the practical operation of *matertera maxima* in succession proceedings or her rank relative to other remote cognates in the Digest's priority scheme. For that analysis, the Digest passages themselves, along with institutional commentaries such as Justinian's *Institutes* (III.2–6) and Gaius's *Institutes* (III.1–38), are necessary supplements.
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Jurisdictional Note
This term has no operative meaning in pure common law jurisdictions, where collateral relatives beyond a certain degree are simply treated as "heirs at law" without specific Latin designations. It retains doctrinal relevance in civil law and mixed jurisdictions — particularly Louisiana and historically in Scotland — where Roman kinship nomenclature informed intestate succession analysis.
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