Exultet Rolls

A most notable acknowledgment of the significance of bees and honey is found in the Exultet Rolls. These sumptuously illustrated liturgical parchment manuscripts, some of them twenty-two feet long and one foot in breadth, are the oldest extant texts of the Roman Mass. They date back to the early eleventh century and were named after the first word of the prayer, Exultet iam angelica turba caelorum (Let now rejoice the heavenly choir of angels). It was sung by the monks on Easter Eve during the consecration of the Easter taper. The texts are divided into short chapters, intersected by elaborately illuminated pictures. The pictures are in reverse to the text so that, when the priests chanted the songs and unfolded the rolls over the pulpit, the congregation could see the subject illustrated. Certain sections of these prayers are veritable eulogies of bees and honey. "Talia igitur Domine, digna sacris altaribus tuis munera offeruntur, quibus to laetari religio Christiana non ambigit." (Such gifts, therefore, O Lord, are offered worthy of thy altars, with which the Christian religion does not hesitate that thou rejoicest.)