Medieval & Renaissance Beehives

This list of beehives includes depictions of skeps and tile hives. For more links on bees, beehives, beekeeping, and apiculture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, click here. There's also some interesting notes on Roman and medieval ceramic beehives in "Ceramics in the Medieval Garden."

• An Anglo-Saxon charm for a swarm of bees
• Bees, Exultet (BNF NAL 710), 1136
• Bees, The Aberdeen Bestiary (fol. 63r), c. 1200
• Bees, a bestiary (BNF Lat. 6838 B, fol. 29v), 13th century
• Beekeeping, Bestiary of Love (BNF Fr. 1444), second half of the 13th century
• A man tries to catch a swarm of bees in a bag, a book of hours (Brit. Lib. Stowe 17, fol. 148), c. 1310-1320
• Beehive with bees (detail), Luttrell Psalter (Brit. Lib. Add. 42130, fol. 204), c. 1325-1335
• Fols. 18v, 81v, and 100v, Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld Stiftsbibliothek 151), c. 1349-1351
• Beehives, Tacuinum Sanitatis (ÖNB 2644), c. 1370-1400
• Harvesting honey, Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF NAL 1673, fol. 82), c. 1390-1400
• Honey, Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Lat. 9333, fol. 91v), 15th century
• A bear tries to stick his paw into beehives to get honey, Flore de Virtue de Costumi (Brit. Lib. Harley 3448, fol. 10v), first quarter of the 15th century
• Bees, De proprietatibus rerum (Musée Condé MS 339, fol. 155v), 15th century
• Bees, The Bestiary of Anne Walsh (Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4, fol. 47r), 15th century; see also Medieval Bestiary: Bee
• Bees, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 136, fol. 16), c. 1445-1450
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF NAF 6593, fol. 137v), 1452
• Beekeeping, Georgica (BNF Lat. 7939 A, fol. 38v), 1458
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 1310, fol. 26v), mid-15th century
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 12320, fol. 128), mid-15th century
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 12321, fol. 152), mid-15th century
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 19081, fol. 130v), mid-15th century
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 12319, fol. 215v), third quarter of the 15th century
• Beehives, Georgics (KB 76 E 21 II, fol. 42v), c. 1450-1475
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 9137, fol. 210v), second half of the 15th century
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 1307, fol. 183), c. 1480

Saint Mihel byd bes, to be brent out of strife: saint Iohn bid take honey, with fauour of life. For one sely cottage, set south good and warme: take body and goodes, and twise yerely a swarme. At Christmas take hede, if their hiues be to light: take honey and water, together well dight. That mixed with strawes, in a dish in their hiues: They drowne not, they fight not, thou sauest their liues. A hundreth good pointes of husbandrie (ll. 84-88), 1557

• St. Christopher by Hieronymus Bosch
• A fable about bees and hives, works of Erasmus (Musée Condé MS 316, fol. 28v), 16th century
• Cupid the Honey Thief by Albrecht Dürer, 1514
• Bees, Book of simple medicines (BNF Fr. 12322, fol. 193v), c. 1520-1530
• Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531
• Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1531
• Alciato's Emblems: Lez choses doulces quelque fois deviennent amères and Presque le semblable, extrait de Theocrit, 1549
• Stained-glass design for a married couple by Hieronymus Lang, 1553