Resumen de Pandolfo Collenuccio's "Specchio d'Esopo" and the Portrait of the Courtier
In his 'Specchio d'Esopo' (ca. 1497), orator Pandolfo Collenuccio (1444-1504) offered fellow courtiers a series of examples of how to use Aesop's fables in public and private address through his depiction of the fables in a series of expository dialogues. As a resident at the Este court in Ferrara, Collenuccio promoted the practical and ethical uses of fables among nobility. The impact of his message can be measured through an analysis of a series of early-16th-century portraits of courtiers in which the letters "V V" are displayed prominently. This epigraphical motif likely derived from Collenuccio's symbolic use of "V V" in 'Specchio' to signify the values critical to a courtier, namely virtue and truth '(virtù' and 'veritas).'
