Two Allegorical Illuminations of Bees

Bees in pastoral hives from the archevêque de Lyon “Fleur de vertu” (François de Rohan, 1530, illuminated manuscript)

Here are two bee-themed illuminations from a very beautiful hand-drawn book from early 16th century France.  The book’s theme is “Flowers of Virtue.”  In the illustration above, the hard-working bees are busily making honey–a model of industrious virtue.  In the illustration below, gluttonous thieving bears are spoiling all of the bees hard work by smashing the hives and gulping down the honey.  My grandfather kept a hive of bees in West Virginia, and this same thing happened to his bees (although the bears apparently ate the bees and a fair amount of the hive in addition to the sweet honey).

Gluttonous Bears Raid the Hives, from the archevêque de Lyon “Fleur de vertu” (François de Rohan, 1530, illuminated manuscript)