Cy sensuit histoire des femes des cicabrons · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire des femes des cicabrons
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Chastity; Virtue; Suicide; Honour; Cimbrian Wives
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: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20078
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_20078_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Chastity; Virtue; Suicide; Honour; Cimbrian Wives