Cy sensuit histoire de epicare femme estrangiere · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire de epicare femme estrangiere
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Freedwomen; Conspiracies; Torture; Emperor Nero; Epicharis
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts the freedwoman, Epicharis, being tortured for information regarding a conspiracy to kill Emperor Nero. Epicharis is depicted lying on a large table with her left hand bound and her right hand being tortured. There is a man sitting on a chair who is pointing at her as he interrogates her. Epicharis had overheard the details of a conspiracy to assassinate Emperor Nero, and when she put her faith in the wrong person, they told Emperor Nero that she was involved in the plan. They tortured her many times; however, she did not reveal the names of anyone involved in the conspiracy. She ended up killing herself to avoid revealing the details to the emperor.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20157
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_20157_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Freedwomen; Conspiracies; Torture; Emperor Nero; Epicharis