A Jewish Woman Devouring Her Child during the Siege of Jerusalem

The Boucicaut Master often included witnesses to the events he depicted: here two men observe a horrendous, cannibalistic act through a window. A Jewish woman named Mary eats the hand of her child, whom she had killed and roasted. When the Romans beseiged Jerusalem in A.D. 70, leading to a terrible famine, hunger had supposedly led to acts of desperation. The miniature follows a discussion of the siege and prefaces a text that speaks against Jews, whose tribulations were believed to be the result of their failure to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Boccaccio states that, just as the Jews captured Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, so the Romans captured the Jews' holy city.