Cy sensuit histoire de lucrete femme de collatin · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire de lucrete femme de collatin
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts a woman named Lucretia stabbing herself with a knife. There are people depicted on the left side of the image watching Lucretia carry out this act. Boccaccio explains that a relative of Lucretia’s husband (Collatinus) had raped her during the night. This man’s name was Sextus, and he had been welcomed into Lucretia and Collatinus’ home as a guest before he committed this crime. Lucretia told her husband, her father (Tricipitinus) and a relative named Brutus what Sextus had done to her. These are presumably the men illustrated on the right. After she told them what Sextus had done to her, she killed herself in shame of what happened.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:19955
Language: frm
Source Name: Des cleres et nobles femmes, De claris mulieribus in an anonymous French translation
Parent Collection: 1410 Paris; 1410 Paris
Image: mta_19955_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Sextus; Collatinus; Important Women; Famous Women; Rape; Chastity; Lucretia