[Verginius Stabbing his Daughter Verginia to Protect her Chastity] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Verginius Stabbing his Daughter Verginia to Protect her Chastity]
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illustration depicts Verginius, a plebeian man, stabbing his daughter Verginia in the chest with a knife. Boccaccio explains that a man named Appius Claudius had fallen in love with Verginia, and although she was betrothed to Lucius Icilius, he devised a plan to make her his own. Appius Claudius, a judge and a decemvir, ordered a decree that stated she would become a slave so that he could own her. To protect his daughter’s chastity, Verginius stabbed Verginia as death would be better than her honour being destroyed. The two men illustrated behind Verginius are most likely Appius Claudius and Lucius Icilius, as they were present in Boccaccio’s telling of the story.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:12009
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris; 1493 Paris
Image: mta_12009_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Verginia; Chastity; Verginius; Important Women