Appendix CASE ONE - Collection Point® | The Total Digital Asset ...

92 Legal History in the Making
The design for book 30, de legatis et fideicommissis shows us a hall, with
pillars in the background. In this hall nine men are pictured, one sitting and
eight standing. One of the men standing is taller than the others and he is
holding a blank square in his hand with seven pendants. Next to him is a man
with a cross on his clothing. His feet are not touching the ground. Behind these
two men there are two more; the four of them are all wearing the same kind of
hat. The group is enclosed by two men in formal clothes. The men in the front
row are all pointing at the tall man. At the left there are two figures, one with
the same hat as the four in the middle. He also is pointing at the tall man. The
other figure is again dressed in formal clothes.
In analyzing this drawing we have to bear in mind that the design was
meant to be an aid to memory at a time when people were fond of symbols,
hieroglyphs and picture puzzles. The tall man is clearly the main figure. From
pictures in this series and from other pictorial sources we know that he is
holding a will. 30 The seven pendants are the seven seals needed for a legal
will in Roman law. 31 The blank most probably means that the question is
about an inheritance of a complete estate. 32 The man sitting, also holding
the will, is the testator. 33 The fact that the man holding the will is taller than
the others, and that everybody is pointing at him, makes it obvious that he
is the heir. The testator is also holding the will; as he is holding on to the
inheritance. The cross on the clothing of the man next to him symbolizes
fidelity and expresses visually the word fides in fideicommissum. 34 This man's
feet are not on the ground: he is not walking on this earth any longer. The
form of the cross reminds us of the cross as a symbol of death. The tall man,
the fideicommissary heir, gets the inheritance only after this man's death. He
is the heir in trust, who will take in succession to him (and may then have to
pass the inheritance on to the next generation). But the designer gives us more
than a visual representation of a simple fideicommissum. With the group of
four and the man at the left, all wearing the same kind of beret, he portrays
a family fideicommissum, although this form of inheritance is not discussed in
book 30 of the Pandects but in book 31. A family fideicommissum was very
often used in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. It gave the testator
power to dispose of his property for four generations. The last two generations
30
J. Buno, Memoriale juris civilis Romani, quo tituli omnes et praecipuae leges . . . emblematis et
imaginibus . . . efficta exhibentur (Hamburg, 1673); Ars magna et admirabilis, speciminibus variis
confirmata, qua Pandectarum tituli. . . (Leiden, 1695).
31
In appearance, of course, the parchment will is not Roman. However, the wax tablets used by the
Romans would not be recognized by the spectator.
32
All the wills in the series have a text, the picture of an object, or the testator pointing to an
object.
33
In Buno, Ars magna, cited above, and on the tiles the testators are pictured sitting in a chair or
lying in bed, to symbolize that they are not in good health, for example, Ars magna, D. 29.6: aeger in
lecto decumbit; D. 31: vides testatorem aegrum in sella lecto assidentem.
34
Ars magna, D. 5.6: cruxfidem denotat.