De Virginea · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: De Virginea
Subject: Famous Women; Patrician Class; Plebeian Class; Verginia; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: Verginia, a noble Roman woman is depicted in this engraving in both the right-hand and left-hand scenes. Her name is engraved as “Virginea” at the bottom on the left side and at the top on the right side. Boccaccio explains that Verginia, despite being a noble woman, was cast out of a temple in Rome by the other noble patrician women due to her being married to a plebeian man. The left side of the engraving depicts Verginia at the altar with noble women surrounding her as they cast her out of the temple. The right side of the engraving looks similar to the left side; however, the right side depicts Verginia with plebeian women. After being cast out of the Patricia Pudicitia temple, Verginia created her own temple and altar named it the Plebeia Pudicitia, and opened it up to the plebeian class.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:16680
Language: spa
Source Name: De Las Mujeres Ilustres [On Famous Women]
Parent Collection: 1494 Mujeres Ilustres; 1494 Mujeres Ilustres
Image: mta_16680_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Patrician Class; Plebeian Class; Verginia; Important Women