Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the transmitting of property and the different political, social and cultural strategies involved in this praxis in the Nordic and Western world from late Antiquity until today. It focuses on the dynamics of donations as charitable acts and the interplay between individual motivations, strategic behaviour and the legal setting, that is, inheritance law. The concept of the forced share existed in classical Roman law, but the idea that the family had rights to the disposition of a kinsman's property mortis causa should be understood alongside other fundamental Roman concepts such as patronage. The book also explores how interests are weighed when property is dispersed, and how free are property holders to disperse their property as they please.