<h2>The Apiarius printing press emblem</h2>
This is the emblem that appears in the Biblia del Oso frontispiece.
Hover over the image and click to find the meaning of the bees, the bear, the honey, the mallet, the tree and the text of the book:
<<nobr>>
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/el-oso-TW.jpg" usemap="#workmap" alt="Emblem family Apiarius">
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<</nobr>><h3>The Bees</h3>
Bees are the representation of order, intellectual and philosophical virtues. But also, they are terrible enemies, they incorporate rigor and justice, they are often compared to dangerous armies. In this sense, the protestant church suffers the catholic attack to have the word of God, in the same way the bear endures the attack of the bees to have to honey.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bees_in_mythology" target="_blank">
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bees-TW.jpg"></a>
<i>Gold plaques embossed with winged bee goddesses, perhaps the Thriae or perhaps an older goddess, found at Camiros, Rhodes, dated to 7th century BCE (British Museum)</i>
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]<h3>The Bear</h3>
The Bear refers to the birth place of the family Apiarius [[Berne|Berne]].
It also refers to Spain, Cosiodoro’s country, and more specifically [[Madrid|Madrid]].
Finally, it is a symbol of the [[human|theMan]] figure because of the similarity when it stands up.
The bear is the representation of the ambiguity between animality and humanity, savage and rational, hence a being in transformation and evolution. In this way the bear symbolizes the Protestant Church that rises in the 16th, craves for the word of God, and suffers the Catholic Church persecution.
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]<h3>The city of Berne</h3>
Berthold V of Zähringen named the city according to the bear he heroically killed in the close by forest at the end of the 12th century.
Matthias Apiaruis opened his printing press in 1537 as a pioneer of musical notation printing. He stayed in business for more than 25 years. His son Samuel Apiarius used the emblem on the Biblia del Oso.
<a href="https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/014026/2016-03-31/" target="_blank">
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Blason_Bern_TW.png" style="height:300px" alt="Blason ville de Berne"></a>
[[Back to the Bear|theBear]]<h3>The bear and Madrid</h3>
In the 14th century this city was well known for being a great place for bears and warthog hunt. The bear appears next to the Madroño in the city arms :
<a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estatua_del_Oso_y_el_Madro%C3%B1o" target="_blank">
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Blason_de_MadridTW.png" style="height:300px" alt="Blason ville de Berne"></a>
[[Back to the Bear|theBear]]<h3>The human and the bear in myths</h3>
In myths and legends three tropes appear: the metamorphosis of man into bear and vice versa; the child that grows among bears; and the <a href="https://nsew.carnegiemnh.org/tlingit-people-of-the-northwest-coast/transformations-bear-raven-and-humans/" target="_blank">woman and the bear</a> that had a creature half human half bear.
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/42871877/Shapeshifting_in_Scandinavian_Mythology" target="_blank">
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/alessia-h-valastro-bjorn-TW.jpg"></a>
<a href="https://www.artstation.com/alessiahv" target="_blank">Image by Alessia H. Valastro</a>
[[Back to the Bear|theBear]]<h3>The Honey</h3>
The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260677542_Honey_Its_history_and_religious_significance_A_review" target="_blank">honey</a>, also compared to the ambrosia, is a very nutritious and delicious meal, used in medicine and in many different preparations. It is the food of gods and men; also, it is a representation of fertility as mentioned in the <a href="http://www.readbibleonline.net/?page_id=29" target="_blank">Song of Solomon</a>. Honey is a metaphor of writing and the word of the wise. In conclusion the honey is the word of God.
<a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020100840" target="_blank"><image src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/zeus-TW.jpg"/></a>
<i>Nymphs feeding Jupiter with the milk of the goat Amalthea, by Giulio Pippi (Louvre)</i>
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]<h3>The Book</h3>
Tetragrammaton in Hebrew: "Jehovah"
<img src="https://bibleacrossnations.rarebook-ubfc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tetragrammaton_scripts.jpg">
The Tetragrammaton - τετραγράμματον (tetragrámmaton) '[consisting of] four letters'), or the Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are yodh, he, waw, and he. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass". While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton" target="_blank">[Source.]</a>
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]<h3>The Mallet</h3>
The mallet for some authors represents the Lutheran ideas that stoke the hegemony of the Catholic Church and its control over the word of God (Nieto).
For Alonso Rey, the mallet is a way to underline the evocation of hard work, as in Spanish there is the saying: “A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando” that means: to pray to God and to work in favor of things getting done instead of waiting for a miracle.
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]<h3>The Tree</h3>
About the tree, there are two interpretations proposed at the moment: <a href="https://books.google.fr/books/about/El_Renacimiento_y_la_otra_Espa%C3%B1a.html?id=lQxnsnj4mIAC&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">Nieto’s</a>, in which the tree is the Roman Church that hides and keeps the word of God; <a href="https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/IMAGO/article/view/1443" target="_blank">Alonso’s</a> is more optimistic, for her, the tree symbolizes the faith that endures despite adversity.
[[Back to the Emblem|The Emblem]]