The Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius adopted the symbol of the dolphin and anchor as his printer's mark. There are about 100 instances in the palace decorations and frescos and there are now tours with the object of finding them all. This emblem appears repeatedly throughout his Palazzo Vecchio where it was painted by the artist Giorgio Vasari. Īn example of the Medici impresa of the sailing tortoise in the Palazzo VecchioĬosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany took festina lente as his motto and symbolised it with a sail-backed tortoise. Other such visualizations include a hare in a snail shell a chameleon with a fish a diamond ring entwined with foliage and perhaps most recognizably, a dolphin entwined around an anchor. (He thought nothing less becoming in a well-trained leader than haste and rashness, and, accordingly, favourite sayings of his were: "Hasten slowly" "Better a safe commander than a bold" and "That which has been done well has been done quickly enough.")Ĭertain gold coins minted for Augustus bore images of a crab and a butterfly to attempt an emblem for the adage. Nihil autem minus perfecto duci quam festinationem temeritatemque convenire arbitrabatur. The Roman historian Suetonius, in De vita Caesarum, tells that Augustus deplored rashness in a military commander, thus " σπεῦδε βραδέως" was one of his favourite sayings: The adage, in Greek and Latin, with the anchor and the dolphin, among the seven emblems of the University of Salamanca.
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