Cy apres sensuit des femmes des cyrambres · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy apres sensuit des femmes des cyrambres
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination 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. The women in the image are depicted with the nooses around their necks and hanging from trees, and their children are depicted dead on the ground.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18505
Language: frm
Source Name: Livre que fist Jehan BOCACE de Certalde des cleres et nobles femmes, lequel il envoia à Audice de Accioroles de Florence, contesse de Haulteville [Book from Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo called the cleric and noble women, of which he sent to Audice Accioroles of Florence, Countess of Haulteville]
Parent Collection: 1401 Florence; 1401 Florence
Image: mta_18505_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Cimbrian Wives; Cimbri; Chastity; Virtue; Honour; Suicide; Important Women