Femmes des Cymbriennes · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Femmes des Cymbriennes
Subject: Crimbrians; Important Women; Famous Women; Noble Women; Chastity; Cimbrian Wives
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Northern Europe; Ancient Rome; Italy; Jutland
Description: This illumination depicts the many wives of the Cimbrian men. They are all standing side by side in a large group looking at one another. There is a woman in the foreground who is holding her child in her arms, and a woman on the left side of the image with her child standing beside her. These women are famous for killing themselves and their children to save their honour. 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
Image Creator: Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18089
Language: frm
Source Name: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
Parent Collection: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496)
Image: mta_18089_OBJ.png