Coniugibus Cymbroru · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Coniugibus Cymbroru
Subject: Famous Women; Cimbrian Wives; Chastity; Virtue; Honour; Suicide; Infanticide; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This engraving 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. Some women in the image are depicted with the nooses around their necks, and one woman is depicted killing her child before killing herself.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18225
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18225_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Cimbrian Wives; Chastity; Virtue; Honour; Suicide; Infanticide; Important Women