Fluorescence emission and excitation spectra of para-phenylene vinylenes nPV with n=1-4 styryl units are investigated experimentally and theoretically as a function of the temperature and the polarizability of the solvent. At low temperatures, the vibronic structures of the S-0<---->S-1 emission and excitation bands are mirror symmetrical with negligible 0-0 energy gaps. The frequencies of the prominent vibrational modes are assigned to the second longitudinal acoustic phonon modes of the entire molecules and to localized carbon-carbon stretching vibrations. The complete vibronic structures of the spectra are calculated at the ab initio Hartree-Fock (HF/6-311G(*)) and restricted configuration interaction singles (RCIS/6-311G(*)) levels of theory assuming planar C-2h molecular symmetry. The theoretically predicted spectra are in good agreement with the experiments. At room temperature, a 0-0 energy gap between the first band maxima opens, and the mirror symmetry between absorption and emission is lost. The vibronic band shapes and 0-0 band gaps are successfully simulated with a combination of Gaussian and exponential broadening of the low temperature spectra. The exponential term reflects the differences in thermal population of the phenyl-vinyl torsional modes in the S-0 and S-1 electronic states. Spectral shifts upon changes in temperature and solvents are quantitatively explained by changes in the refractive index of the environment. From extrapolation of the experimental data the vertical and adiabatic transition energies of the oligomers in vacuo are obtained and compared to RCIS and semiempirical quantum chemical calculations, respectively.