„Punerea de feciori”: practica socială a adopţiei în Ţara Românească în secolul al XVII-lea
The Social Practice of Adoption in Wallachia in the 17th Century

Summary/Abstract: In Wallachia, in the middle of the 17th century and at the time that Byzantine law was implemented, the process of adoption progressively replaced brotherhood as the judicial process through which a foreigner of noble descent could be introduced into the patrimony. Documented practices indicate that all forms of adoption, both of minors and adults, were popular in the customary law and submitted to a renewal process by different social actors. The main reason 69 DRH, B, vol. XXIV, nr. 21. 208 Violeta Barbu for the flexibility of this custom was the weak judicial foundation and authentication and the lack of legalization of the adoption process by the Church in the 17th century. As long as the only institutions, the Church and the monarchy, did not in fact control the adoption process, social actors used the adoption process during the 17th century without generating any patrimonial conflicts. While the orphans adopted alieni juris were usually relatives, the adrogatio type adoption of foreign adults was protected by the practice of a donation conditioned on an assistance clause. Despite very little information on this topic, studying the adoption process helps with understanding the transition from the customary law of the collective solidarity to the assertion of the judicial capacity of an individual or a couple, and then to the establishing of the monopoly of the state authority over the individual will.

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