Von den weiben cimbrozum · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Von den weiben cimbrozum
Subject: Famous Women; Cimbrian Wives; Chastity; Virtue; Honour; Suicide; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This engraving depicts the wives of the Cimbrians (a northern tribe) killing their children and hanging themselves. After their husbands were defeated in war against the Romans, the wives pleaded to their enemies for mercy and to let them become vestal virgins. When the Romans denied their request, they decided to kill their own children and hang themselves to save their virtue and to not die at the hands of their enemies. Some women in the image are depicted with the nooses around their necks, and one woman is depicted killing her child before killing herself.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18055
Language: ger
Source Name: Hyenach volget der kurcz syn von ettlichen frauen von denen johannes boccacius in latein beschriben hat und doctor heinricus stainhöwel geteütschet [Following the short stories of several women of which Giovanni Boccaccio wrote in Latin, and doctor Heinrich Steinhöwel translated]
Parent Collection: 1473 Augsburg; 1473 Augsburg
Image: mta_18055_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Cimbrian Wives; Chastity; Virtue; Honour; Suicide; Important Women