@oshfdk
Thank you for pointing that out — I realize now that my wording was unclear.
I didn’t mean the bees’ visual world (like UV sensitivity), but rather a visual system shaped by what bees care about behaviorally — such as nectar locations, root structure, or access paths.
For example, in one page that shows a flower resembling a sunflower, the bottom part of the image seems to show what might be the underside of the flower. Since bees often crawl into flowers like sunflowers to reach nectar, I thought perhaps the scribe considered the underside to be the most important part from a bee’s perspective — and connected it visually below the rest of the flower to reflect that idea.
As you said, the bee dance was probably not understood in the 15th century. But I noticed that in the astronomical pages, the women are veiled or robed, and it made me wonder whether the scribe may have been exploring a possible connection between celestial cycles and queen-bee traits or lifecycles. That kind of thinking — linking animals to the stars — was not unusual in the Middle Ages.
I'm just exploring possibilities at this point. Thanks again for engaging with the idea!
Thank you for pointing that out — I realize now that my wording was unclear.
I didn’t mean the bees’ visual world (like UV sensitivity), but rather a visual system shaped by what bees care about behaviorally — such as nectar locations, root structure, or access paths.
For example, in one page that shows a flower resembling a sunflower, the bottom part of the image seems to show what might be the underside of the flower. Since bees often crawl into flowers like sunflowers to reach nectar, I thought perhaps the scribe considered the underside to be the most important part from a bee’s perspective — and connected it visually below the rest of the flower to reflect that idea.
As you said, the bee dance was probably not understood in the 15th century. But I noticed that in the astronomical pages, the women are veiled or robed, and it made me wonder whether the scribe may have been exploring a possible connection between celestial cycles and queen-bee traits or lifecycles. That kind of thinking — linking animals to the stars — was not unusual in the Middle Ages.
I'm just exploring possibilities at this point. Thanks again for engaging with the idea!