Resumen: The Chilean Civil Code does not include the ¿Testament in Case of Epidemic¿ among the special testaments. At first, Andrés Bello was in favor of introducing this testamentary typology in the Chilean legal system, as shown by the Civil Code projects of 1841-45 and 1851 but convinced that could not guarantee the freedom of the testator, he did not insert it in the project of 1853 project, nor in the definitive Civil Code, promulgated
in 1855. A rather singular decision considering that during the Medieval and Early Modern Age in the Hispanic territories it was usual, in times of epidemic, to test in front of two witnesses, and not five, as required by the laws of Partida (6.1.6) and by the Ordenamiento de Alcalá (Law 1, Title 19), and that almost all the regulatory collections consulted to proceed with the drafting of the Chilean Civil Code contemplated this special testament. Therefore, this essay wants to examine the hypothesis that this choice was not only influenced by legal considerations, but was
also decisive the epidemic risk perception of Andrés Bello, and his contemporaries.
