Donations, Inheritance and Property in the Nordic and Western World from Late Antiquity until Today

_x005F_x000D_ Donations, Strategies and Relations in the Latin West and Nordic Countries presents, for the first time, a longue durée perspective on the dynamics of donations and the interplay between individual motivations, strategic behaviour and the legal setting of inheritance law. This collection places donations to ecclesiastical, charitable and cultural institutions in the Nordic region within a European context. The book pinpoints the socio-legal challenges that societies faced in guaranteeing that fortunes were passed on in a way that did not impoverish children or kinsmen and thereby created social problems, but also ensured that the social rules and legal practices were upheld.