The Bee knows how to find the Rose

Robert Fludd, Summum bonum. [Frankfurt]: n.n.. 1629. Fol.

On the title page, Fludd refers to the true wisdom of the Rosicrucians; in another work he had already defended the Rosicrucians, who were under heavy attack and were accused of heretical ideas. The engraved rose is very likely also a reference to the Rosicrucians (notice the cross-shaped stem). More clearly than in the printer’s mark of van Zuren, we can observe here that bees and spiders play a role: the rose gives honey to the bee, being the positive connotation of the rose and the Rosicrucians. In the background, however, there are spider webs, to be understood here as the negative ideas Rosicrucianism was supposed to spread.