Theses sequentes de testamentis

18. Persons are said to have the capacity for a testament (testamenti factio)—sometimes those who can make a testament, sometimes those to whom something can be left by testament, even if they are unable to make a testament themselves.

19. Hence, also, sons under power (filiifam.), the slaves of another, the deaf, and the insane are said to have the capacity for a testament.

20. The blind can testify regarding their last wills through an oral declaration (nuncupatio) in the presence of seven witnesses and a notary, with the names of the heirs and their shares, as well as those of the legatees, being openly expressed and declared; with the writing of the notary himself, the witnesses observing it, and the subscription of the witnesses themselves, as well as the sealing of the same and of the notary, following thereafter.

21. Anyone who is both deaf and mute at the same time cannot make a will, unless it happens due to an accidental infirmity and he knows letters and subscribes with his own hand; otherwise, a person who is merely deaf cannot testify at all if he is able to express his mind; yet one who is merely mute cannot testify, unless, being schooled in letters, he has written out his own testament.

22. Those condemned for a defamatory libel (carmen famosum) can neither make a testament, nor be employed as witnesses to testaments, just as the rest who are forbidden by the laws and ordered to be incapable of making a testament (intestabiles).

23. He who is instituted as an heir in a testament cannot be a witness in the same testament, which is held to the contrary in the case of a legatee or a written tutor.

24. Those under the age of puberty and those placed under the power of the testator cannot serve as witnesses.

25. The father of a person who can make a testament regarding his castrense or quasi-castrense peculium may be employed by him as a witness to the testament; and

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