Aesop

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Aesop is mentioned by Dante in Canto XXIII of the Inferno, where the two pilgrims, proceeding silent and alone, are compared to Franciscan friars walking in silence, one behind the other. Within this narrative framework the poet indicates that his gaze was directed upon the fable of Isopo, the medieval form by which Aesop is designated in the text. Critical notes specify that he is the Greek author of moral fables, whose collections, such as the Liber Esopi by Walter the Englishman, were widely circulated in the Middle Ages and also used in the schools. Dante can therefore make only a brief allusion, confident that the reader knows how to recognize the reference. The same source recalls that Aesop is also cited in the Convivio (IV, XXX 4), where Dante indicates him as a poet «ne la prima Favola». No further biographical detail is found in the verses.