Ci sensuit histoire de tierte emiliene de scipion feme · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Ci sensuit histoire de tierte emiliene de scipion feme
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Ancient Rome; Italy
Description: This illumination depicts Scipio Africanus, a Roman general, committing adultery with a young servant girl in the centre of the image. The woman on the left side of the image is his wife, Tertia Aemilia. She is depicted looking away after discovering her husband and his mistress as they commit adultery. Instead of confronting her husband about the affair, she devises a plan to get rid of the mistress. Tertia Aemilia married the young servant girl off to a freedman. She does this so that no one finds out about the affair so that it does not ruin her reputation. Boccaccio explains that he chose to write on Tertia Aemilia because the way she handled the affair and how she used her cunning was admirable.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20072
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_20072_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Adultery; Infidelity; Scipio Africanus; Tertia Aemilia; Important Women