Bestiary: Justice and Truth
The king of the bees as justice; the partridge and its true mother
A text-only page of Leonardo's moralized bestiary in mirror script, with no diagrams. Justice is likened to the king of the bees, who orders every task with reason — some bees gather flowers, some work, some fight the wasps, some clear away filth, some attend the king and carry him when he is old and wingless — and any that fails its office is punished without remission. Truth is figured by the partridges, which steal one another's eggs, yet the young hatched from them always return to their true mother.
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Justice — the ordered kingdom of the bees
Justice is likened to the king of the bees, who orders and disposes all things with reason: some bees are set to gather flowers, some to labor, some to fight the wasps, some to remove filth, some to attend the king and to carry him when he is old and wingless. Any bee that neglects its office is punished without remission.
Truth — the partridge returns to its true mother
Truth is figured by the partridges: although they steal one another's eggs, the chicks hatched from those eggs always return to their true mother.