ECTD_070
TITLE:
Honey crop forecasting in the Middle Ages
SOURCE:
Bee World 53(2) 79 - 83
DATE:
1972
79
78
18. HERROD-HEMPSALL, W. (1930) Beekeeping new and old. Vol. I. London :
British Bee Journal
19. HUBER, F. (1792) Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles. Geneva : Paschoud
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(225) : 311
21. LANDOIS, H. (1867) Die Ton- und Stimmeapparate der Insekten in anatomischphysiologischer und akustischer Beziehung. Z. wiss. Zool. 17 : 107-186
22. LINDAUER, M. (1955) Schwarmbienen auf Wohnungsuche. Z. vergl. Physiol.
37 : 263-324
23. LITTLE, H. F. (1962) Reactions of the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. to artificial
sounds and vibrations of known frequencies. Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 55(1) :
82-89
24. MARSHALL, J. (1966) Adventure with an observation hive. Br. Bee J. 94 :
126-127
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
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41.
42.
MARTIN, P. (1963) Die Steuerung der Volksteilung bcim Schwarmen der Bienen.
Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Problem der Wanderschwarme. Insectes soc.
10(1) : 13-42
MORSE, R. A. (1963) Swarm orientation in honeybees. Science. N.Y. 141(3578) :
357-358
MORSE, R. A., DYCE, E. J. & YOUNG, R. G. (1966)
Weight changes by the
queen honey bee during swarming. Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 59(4) : 772-774
See Fig. 8 in PRINGLE, J. W. S. (1957) Insect flight. London : Cambridge
University Press
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Narkose. Z. vergl. Physiol. 47 : 559-595
SIMPSON, J. (1954) Effects of some anaesthetics on honeybees: nitrous oxide,
carbon dioxide, ammonium nitrate smoker fumes. Bee Wld 35(8) :
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(1963) Queen perception by honeybee swarms. Nature, Lond. 199
(4888) : 94-95
(1964) The mechanism of honeybee queen piping. Z. vergl. Physiol.
48 : 277-282
(1966) Congestion of adult honeybees with and without adequate hive
space. / . apic. Res. 5(1) : 59-61
(1967) Effect of prolonged restriction of oviposition in a colony. Rep.
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de l'abeille" ed. R. Chauvin, Paris : Masson et Cie
(1969) The amounts of hive space needed by colonies of European
Apis mellifera. J. apic Res. 8(1) : 3-8
SIMPSON, J. & CHERRY, S. M. (1969) Queen confinement, queen piping and
swarming in Apis mellifera colonies. Anim. Behav. 17(2) : 271-278
SIMPSON, J. & MOXLEY, E, (1971) The swarming behaviour of honeybee colonies
kept in small hives and allowed to outgrow them. J. apic. Res. 10(3) :
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honeybee colonies in small hives. J. apic. Res. 2(1) : 50-54
(1964) The emergence of swarms from Apis mellifera colonies. Behaviour 23(1/2) : 140-148
SIMPSON, J., RIEDEL, I. B. M. & WILDING, N. (1968) Invertase in the hypo-
pharyngeal glands of the honeybee. V. apic. Res. 7(1) : 29-36
continued on page 86
Honey crop forecasting in the Middle Ages
The illustration on pages 80 and 81 shows part of an illuminated "Kalendar"
drawn around 1370, which throws interesting light on the importance attached
to honey production at that time. The calendar is in the Bodleian collection
(Raw!. 939), and was shown in the exhibition arranged by the Bodleian Library
on the occasion of the Bee Research Association Meeting in Oxford in May
1971 (see Bee World 52(2) : 80-81).
The making of calendars with computistic tables and prognostications is
very old indeed, and from ancient times such calendars have been taken
seriously. Their complicated history has not yet been exhaustively studied,
and no attempt is made to enter into it here. By the fifteenth century these
calendars were a common feature in England, Holland, Belgium and France.
The one discussed here is earlier; it is a very fine specimen, made in England,
and would be of the type Chaucer referred to as "kalendres enlumyned". It
consists altogether of six large sheets folded to a pocket size (14 x 10 cm),
with texts and coloured drawings on both sides. For convenience when
referring to the English translations of the prognostications, given above and
below the illustration, upper pages are numbered \u to 6w and lower pages
1/ to 61.
Pages \u and 1/ give the Dominical or Sunday Letter for the year; if this
Letter is A, 1st January of the year in question is a Sunday; if it is B, 2nd
January is a Sunday; if it is G, 7th January is a Sunday. On pages 2« and 2/
the crop predictions begin; they continue on pages 3-6, but interspersed with
more and more prognostications of a general character—on the style of a
present-day Old Moore's Almanac. In the various years, fights are predicted
in year A (pugna erutit, page An); great injuries and thunderstorms in year B
(damna magna idest tonitruus, 2u); some news about kings in year D (aliquid
novum de regibus, 6u). Page 6, which offers various predictions of events—
even of earthquakes (terre motus)—ends up with a series of four haycocks for
year G, to signify much hay (ff'enum multum). The final row of drawings on
pages 1/-6/ is a pious injunction: "Whosoever shall have fasted on bread and
water these 12 following days will be certain of the joy of paradise if he has
repented and confessed"; the fast days begin on the first Friday in March
(page 1/) and finish with the Nativity (ante nativitatem domini) on page 6/;
these entries are not translated.
Honey, represented by tall wicker skeps, is the only crop for which a forecast
is made every year, and this gives some indication of its importance. In years
A and C two skeps indicate plentiful or abundant honey yields (mel habundabii);
in years D, E, F and G there are three skeps with the same prediction. For
the remaining year (B) page 5u shows an overturned skep to signify that bees
will die (apes morientur); this year was to have a friendly—mild—winter and
a wet summer, so the mortality might be due to poor forage or to disease,
or both.
The fruit crop is represented by a tree which, interestingly enough, is close
by the hives. A prediction is given for four years out of the seven; it varies
80
"
warm winter
stormy s u m m e r
corn dear
crops good
garden fruit
fairly good
honey plentiful
youths will die
disease of
livestock
•*
friendly winter
wet s u m m e r
corn dear
great iniuries &
thunderstorms
grape harvest
good
there will be
wailing
kings will die
black winter
turbulent
summer
wet a u t u m n
crops good
much garden
fruit
honey plentiful
youths a n d
women wil
die
livestock killed
by lightning
warm winter
good summer
good autumn
crops good
garden fruit
honey plentiful
good grape
harvest
women will die in childbed
D
there will be
fights
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great robberies
bees will die
s o m e news
a b o u t kings
soldiers will
fight
sore eyes
great fires
many d e m o n s
they will work at
the grape
harvest
danger on the
sea
some news about kings
hay in danger
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livestock will die and perish
crops will vary
dear
flax
soreness o f eyes
much honey,
children will die
i.e. a b u n d a n t
there will be starvation in various
places
earthquakes
fevers will prevail
honey plentiful
old men will die
much hay
t
windy winter
good summer
good autumn
fruit will be
plentiful
oil a n d honey
plentiful
I"
black winter
dry s u m m e r
dry autumn
grape harvest
good
warm winter
stormy summer
mild a u t u m n
great fires
meat is scarce
high price o f
flax fi.e. flax
scarce]
there will be
peace
6/
rivers will flood
82
from unremarkable (year D) to plentiful (C, E). It may seem surprising that
the grape harvest is also predicted for four years. It is usually referred to as
good, and is represented by a tun (barrel) or—in year C (page 6w)—by three
tuns, immediately after the three ships in distress: danger on the sea {navigatio
periculosa). Another unexpected crop is oil, which will be plentiful in year E;
page 3/ shows two hanging lamps. However, a manuscript drawn up in one
country might well serve as a model for a later manuscript elsewhere, and the
copyist would not necessarily revise it to suit local conditions. So the inclusion
of predictions for grapes and oil may not imply that these commodities were
produced in England at the time.
The predictions for livestock, on page 4, reflect unrelieved gloom: the animals
will either be diseased (year A), or die and perish (year E), or be killed by
lightning (year C). Meat is referred to only once, in year E, when it will be
scarce—page 3/ shows a cleaver descending on an empty chopping block.
Humans suffer with their livestock. Apart from the fires in years C and G
(5u, 21), the floods and earthquakes in E and F (6/) and the robberies in A (5//).
there will be starvation in various places (year F, 5/), wailing (B, 3«), sore eyes
(B, 5// and F, 3/), and fevers (G, 3/). Deaths of specific groups are predicted
in every year but one: youths (A, 3^/), kings (B, 4//), youths and women (C, 3//),
women in childbed (D, 4//), children (F, 4/) and old men (G, 5/). Year E is
the only exception, when "there will be peace" (pax erit, 51).
The picture one gets is of a hard life for man and beast in the fourteenth
century, but of good conditions for the bees in six years out of seven. This
could well be a fair assessment. It may seem curious that the wax yields are
not mentioned with the honey, but—apart from oil, hay and flax—all the
harvests predicted are food crops.
There is also a series of prognostications in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript
dating from the eleventh century, which is in the British Museum (Bibl. Cott.
MSS Tiberius A III). One of these runs: "If on Woden's day the Kalends
fall [i.e. year E] there will be a hard winter and bad spring; but a good summer.
The fruits of the earth will be much beaten down, honey will be scarce, and
young men will die. If the Kalends fall on the Sun's day [year A] there will
be a good winter, windy spring, and dry summer; and a very good year this
will be, sheep will increase, there will be much honey, and plenty and peace
will be upon the earth".
The Red Book of Bath (1428), in the collection of the Marquess of Bath at
Longleat, gives the prognostications for year A in the following verse:
"When the Christ's day it cometh on Sunday
Thus followeth the year this book doth say
Windy winter and summer dry;
Birds shall multiply.
Much more honey and also wheat,
Vines with grapes and fruits sweet".
Except for the fact that all these calendars assume a seven-year cycle of conditions (there being seven days in the week), they do not seem to show much
consistency.
In presenting this excerpt from the 1370 calendar, which has remained
unpublished for six centuries, my acknowledgements are due to a number of
people. In 1952 Mrs. R. M. Duruz drew my attention to the calendar, no. 98
in the Exhibition of Latin Liturgical Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library.
83
Dr. S. J. P. van Dijk compiled the catalogue of this Exhibition, and provided
more detailed information in letters; Mr. Henry Minn made further suggestions.
Dr. G. Kolisko and others have made and checked the translations from the
Latin, much of which is written in contracted forms. The Keeper of Western
Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Dr. R. W. Hunt, kindly gave permission
for the twelve pages of the calendar to be reproduced in Bee World, and both
he and Dr. W. O. Hassell have given valued help in various ways.
The full colour of these charming drawings—which are a significant contribution to what is known of fourteenth century popular art—can be seen in a
film strip (EC 234.3) which has been made at our request. It can be purchased
from the Bodleian Library (Department of Western Manuscripts), Oxford
OX1 3BG, for 85p including postage and packing (£1-00 overseas).
EVA CRANE