John Levett (author)

John Levett (also spelt Levit or Leavett) was a 17th-century English naturalist who was the author of a ground-breaking early study of the habits of bees, with close observation of their behaviour and suggestions on how to manage their hives, published in London in 1634.

The Master Bee, Levett wrote, had regal authority, "correcting the lazie, sloathfull, and disobedient, and giving honour and incouragement to those which are painfull, laborious and diligent."

[11] The preface to Levett's book was written by "S. Purcas" in rhyme, who was undoubtedly English author and travel writer Samuel Purchas.

In the sort of thinking that stamped the age of exploration and colonisation, Levett consigned the bee to his role as supporting player.

Levett dismissed the concerns of those who said it was "a pity to kill the bees that have so laboured for us," calling such talk "a foolish and fond conceit."

[16] By that time, the new hives and improved artificial wax foundations, new smokers, even new breeds of bees meant that the beekeepers of John Levett's day became the more dignified 'apiarists'.

[17] In today's world of collapsing bee populations, the Levett model of 'bee domination,' a mirror of its epoch of exploration and colonisation, seems particularly dated.

Title page , The Ordering of Bees: Or, The True History of Managing Them , by John Levett, Gent., published by Thomas Harper, London, 1634