Mock wills were astonishingly popular in France in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. They could be written by poets - or creatures like mules or birds; they could convey repentance or satire; they could be comic or tragic, clever or caustic. They could serve a political purpose - or simply raise a belly-laugh in the tavern. In this lucid and broad-ranging study, Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet, whose knowledge of the period is unparalleled, traces the history and poetics of an intriguing sub-genre whose best-known exponent is, of course, "Francois Villon". "L'ecriture testamentaire a la fin du Moyen Age" was delivered as the Spring 1999 Zaharoff Lecture at the Taylor Institution in the University of Oxford.