The question is, does Peter leave Maria one hundred petty pounds outright and an annuity of twenty-five pounds “for her labor in managing the house and her children as long as she lives,” or “for (i.e., in return for) her labor in managing the house and his children as long as she lives”?
The words “dum vixerit” must mean “as long as she lives,” because they are similarly used in the next sentence of another recipient of an annuity. Could they mean, “while he (i.e., Peter) lived,” there would be less difficulty in translating “pueros suos” as “his children.”
Later legend (Scardeone, 1560, p. 201) stated that Peter had a housekeeper named Marietta who saved his corpse from the Inquisition by hiding it for a time. It is also possible that Maria was Peter’s mistress as well as housekeeper, and that the “pueros suos” were “their children.”
[2939] H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, I, 520.
[2940] Again it is a question of the translation of a reflexive pronoun.
In the passage, “Benvenutus q. fil. mag. Petri fisici olim ser Constancii de Abano pro se et vice Petri et Zifredi suorum fratrum q. eiusd. d. Petri et suorum heredum vendidit” (Gloria, p. 587), does “suorum heredum” mean Peter’s heirs or, like “suorum fratrum,” Benvenuto’s heirs?
The other document of 1321, “... in villa Abani coheret a mane Benvenutus q. magistri Petri de Abano cum Petro et Zufredo fratribus suis,” shows that they have just inherited some property in Abano together, but scarcely from their father who has been dead at least three years according to the other document.
[2941] Verci, VII, Documenti, p. 118, “et si non posset valere iure testamenti valeat et teneat iure codicillorum vel quocumque alio iure quo melius et efficacius valere et tenere possit.”
[2942] E. Vacandard, The Inquisition, 1908, p. 246.
[2943] It is also barely possible that Peter, in drawing up his will, had planned to have his sons denounce him in order to inherit.