«Formalizzazione» del contenuto e «contenutizzazione» della forma. Profili attuali di diritto testamentario romano e medievale

The purpose of the present thesis is to explore the historical roots of testamentary formalism, which are traced back first to the Roman experience, characterized by a rigid structure, compliant with the «meta-individual» nature of the mortis causa act, and then to the Middle Ages, when the Church, through that extraordinary and flexible instrument known as «aequitas», contributed to ease those formalities, for the purpose of ensuring the validity of «pro remedio animae» and «ad pias causas» legacies: the «relativity» of normative provisions concerning this relevant of part of succession law is thus fully demonstrated.