About Genevros Alvearie

Introduction to my gallery of bee images: Genevro's Alvearie

Alvearie = Elizabethan English for "Beehive":

I first encountered the word "Alvearie" a few weeks ago in the context of studying Shakespeare.

Two book collectors found a copy of a 16th century dictionary called Baret's Alvearie for sale on eBay. They purchased the dictionary and studied its contents, especially the hand-written notations in the book copy.

Baret's Alvearie was one of the key dictionaries in Shakespeare's time in England. John Baret was the compiler of the dictionary which identified words in four languages: English, Latin, French, and Greek.

Baret called the dictionary his Alvearie (Beehive) in recognition of the young people who scurried all over the country gather information for the document. We would say that the hard-working youth were "busy as bees."

As the two book collectors studied the notations, they hypothesized that the copy of the dictionary in their possession was the actual document that William Shakespeare used and annotated.

You can find out more about the book collectors and their Shakespeare hypothesis at their Web site: http://shakespearesbeehive.com

For my part, I really enjoy capturing images of bees here on the flowers of Menlo Park.

I hope you enjoy this collection from my "beehive" of images.

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