Traute emulienne feme de scipion · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Traute emulienne feme de scipion
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts a portrait of Tertia Aemilia, the wife of Scipio Africanus. Her husband had fallen in love with a young servant girl and began having an affair with her. To avoid this secret going public and ruining her noble reputation, Tertia Aemilia set the servant girl free married her off to a freedman. Boccaccio explains that she is praiseworthy as any other woman would have let the infidelity affect their emotions, make the affair public and cause her husband’s fame to be ruined.
Image Creator: Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18083
Language: frm
Source Name: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
Parent Collection: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496); Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496)
Image: mta_18083_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Scipio Africanus; Important Women; Famous Women; Noble Women; Infidelity; Tertia Aemilia