Definition
Testamentorum genera is a Latin phrase from Roman law meaning "the kinds of wills" or "the types of testaments." It refers to the classification of the forms by which a valid testamentary disposition could be made under Roman law. In its classical usage, the phrase serves as a heading or organizing concept for the recognized categories of wills available at different periods of Roman legal development, particularly the two ancient forms: the will made before the comitia calata (the assembly convened twice yearly for this purpose) and the will made in procintu (before an army drawn up for battle). A third form, the will by mancipation (testamentum per aes et libram), later displaced both ancient forms and became the standard instrument of testamentary transfer in classical Roman law.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering testamentorum genera in historical sources should treat it as a classificatory or taxonomic heading rather than as a term of art describing a single legal doctrine. Its appearance in a digest, treatise, or commentary typically signals that the surrounding text is engaged in systematic exposition of testamentary forms — likely drawn from or responding to Gaius, the Institutes of Justinian, or Ulpian's writings on the law of wills.
The practical research trap here is the corruption in the Rapalje & Lawrence entry. The surviving dictionary text conflates or runs together two entirely separate topics: the Roman law discussion of testamentorum genera and a passage on the writ of fieri facias de bonis ecclesiasticis in English ecclesiastical practice. This is almost certainly a typesetting or transcription error in the source volume — material from an adjacent entry bled into this one. Researchers relying on Rapalje & Lawrence for this term will find the entry unreliable as printed and should cross-check against civil law treatises and Roman law sources directly.
Because testamentorum genera is a phrase used to organize exposition rather than to define a cause of action or a procedural right, it appears most often in the introductory sections of treatises on Roman wills, in civilian commentaries, and in works of comparative legal history. It will not appear as a term of art in common law pleading or statutory materials, and its presence in an Anglo-American legal dictionary reflects the broader nineteenth-century practice of including Roman and civil law vocabulary for the benefit of practitioners trained in or encountering mixed civil/common law jurisdictions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the only shelf source for this term, and the entry is compromised by what appears to be a printing corruption: the definition begins with a genuine, if brief, statement of the two ancient Roman forms of will, then abruptly continues with unrelated material concerning the fieri facias de bonis ecclesiasticis writ and citations to Chitty's General Practice and Archbold's Practice. The Roman law content and the English procedural content have no substantive connection. The Roman law portion correctly identifies the two ancient forms — the will before the comitia and the will in procintu — which aligns with standard civil law sources. No other Law Mind shelf dictionary carries an entry for this phrase.
The absence of broader dictionary coverage reflects the phrase's character: it is expository Latin, the kind of heading a civilian jurist would use to begin a chapter, rather than a term requiring independent definition. Historians of Roman private law and comparative law scholars will find the substantive content behind this phrase in primary civil law sources rather than in Anglo-American legal dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
Testamentorum genera belongs to Roman and civil law tradition and has no direct application in common law jurisdictions. It may surface in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed-law jurisdictions in the context of historical commentary on testamentary forms, but it does not describe an operative legal category in any current Anglo-American legal system.