Cy sensuit histoire de pauline rommaine · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire de pauline rommaine
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts a Roman woman named Paulina speaking with a priest on the right side of the image. Paulina was a chaste and devout woman and is renowned for her naivety by being tricked into losing her virtue. A man named Mundus (who is depicted on the left side of the image) had fallen in love with Paulina and devised a plan to trick her into having relations with him. He bribed a priest to tell Paulina that if she stayed the night at the temple, the Egyptian God, Anubis, would come to her in her sleep. She believed this deception, and when she slept at the temple, Mundus disguised himself as Anubis and tricked Paulina into having intercourse with him. When Paulina realized she was deceived, her husband went to the emperor and had Mundus exiled. The priest of the temple was tortured as his punishment.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20155
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_20155_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Anubis; Mundus; Gods; Temples; Deception; Naivety; Important Women; Famous Women; Paulina