Piazza Annunziata, Florence
The inscription translates, "One Rule Alone". Natural science knew nothing about queen bees and assumed that any insect group this well organized around a single bee must be one of nature's many monarchies. Courtly hierarchies projected themselves into nature at all levels from the Four Elements to the animal world.
For more on bees and the courtly cosmos, see my essay on Cosmos in the unfinished book on landscape - on this web site.
