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This illustration is on the frontispiece of the second book from 'Pegasides pleyn' (Pegaside's Square), a late sixteenth-century tome by the Brussels humanist Johan Baptist Houwaert (1533-1599) that was republished several times in the Dutch Republic. The books provide extensive discourse on female life stages from adolescence to widowhood; their purpose was to teach women to lead honourable and virtuous lives.
The title of the second book is 'The Crown of Virtuous Maidens.' The illustration: A man enters the room holding a chain, his companion following with a large trunk. They approach three women, one of whom immediately reaches for a book. The accompanying poem exhorts maidens to be virtuous and withstand all potential admirers who would enslave them.
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