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Today I found myself researching medieval & Renaissance beekeeping.
If you need someone scary for a medieval story and you can't use the plague doctor because he's not medieval... why not try one of these?
If you need someone scary for a medieval story and you can't use the plague doctor because he's not medieval... why not try one of these?
Here are the sources... and random bee history!
Epic beekeeping history thread;
https://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/medieval-beekeeping/
The Beekeepers and the Birdnester
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530–1569)
(if you haven't yet, google this artist, his work is amazing).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder
Epic beekeeping history thread;
https://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/medieval-beekeeping/
The Beekeepers and the Birdnester
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530–1569)
(if you haven't yet, google this artist, his work is amazing).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder
Look the whole family gets involved, they are making noise, this is called tanging, it allows you to lure the bees away.
1500s, by Stradanus, Johannes Stradanus, Jan van der Straet or Giovanni Stradano (all the same guy!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradanus
1500s, by Stradanus, Johannes Stradanus, Jan van der Straet or Giovanni Stradano (all the same guy!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradanus
Beekeeper, looks female to me, by Sebastian Münster.
"Gering ackerbau wen in Reüssen" 1574.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_M%C3%BCnster
"Gering ackerbau wen in Reüssen" 1574.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_M%C3%BCnster
Sadly I can't find who these people are who made these lovely reproductions!
If anyone knows, let me know please.
If anyone knows, let me know please.
So... and because beekeeping history is awesome and I want to become a beekeeper and because bees are saving the world and so on, here's a whole bunch of beekeeping history.
Honey seeker depicted on 8,000-year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain!!
Honey seeker depicted on 8,000-year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain!!
Beekeeping, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (14th century)
Bees, The Aberdeen Bestiary (fol. 63r), c. 1200
This may be one of the most amazing bits of medieval art I've ever seen.
Gorgeous and rather modern.
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ms24/search?q=bees
This may be one of the most amazing bits of medieval art I've ever seen.
Gorgeous and rather modern.
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ms24/search?q=bees
From a theological miscellany (Brit. Lib. Harley 3244, fol. 57v), c. 1236-1275
February in the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1412-16.
Don't look at the people by the fire... you did didn't you?
You perv.
Don't look at the people by the fire... you did didn't you?
You perv.
Pooh's ancestor.
From 'The Flowers of Virtue and of Manners', moral children's book, 15th-century.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/drawing-of-a-unicorn-from-the-flowers-of-virtue-and-of-custom
From 'The Flowers of Virtue and of Manners', moral children's book, 15th-century.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/drawing-of-a-unicorn-from-the-flowers-of-virtue-and-of-custom
Cupid the Honey Thief
1514
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 22 x 31 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
1514
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 22 x 31 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25
France, c. 1450
France, c. 1450
Bees flying to Hive, man with sickle and woman. English c.1300. detail
Another chap making noise, this is called "tanging" and seems to get bees their attention, so you can move into a hive or wherever you want them to go.
http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/codex/2618
http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/codex/2618
From a French copy of Virgil's Georgics, showing a beekeeper wearing a protective hood, "tanging" a swarm.
De Natura animalium, Cambrai ca. 1270 Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 37r
Northumberland Bestiary, English, about 1250–1260
Ms. 100
Ms. 100
Oh dear.
A swarm of bees in an English bestiary (4th quarter of the 12th century): Add MS 11283, f. 23v
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_11283
A swarm of bees in an English bestiary (4th quarter of the 12th century): Add MS 11283, f. 23v
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_11283
