Sweet flowers of learning

I bought a wax tablet -- a diptych, hinged together with leather strips, made in authentic Anglo-Saxon style. It smells so sweet I keep opening it up just to sniff it. Given that wax tablets were used to learn letters and to gather notes I wonder if that's why the medievals were so keen on the metaphor of learning as honey gathered by bees from flowers in a meadow.

Here's the king of the tortuous metaphor, Aldhelm, really going with the topos. I had to be able to translate this for my Part I exams. That was some time ago.

...ast tamen solertissimae apis industriam praedictis exemplorum formulis coaptari posse uberrima rerum experimenta liquido declarant, quae roscido facessante crepusculo et exorto limpidissimi solis iubare densos extemplo tripudiantium turmarum exercitus per patentes campos gregatim diffundunt, modo melligeris caltarum frondibus seu purpureis maluarum floribus incubantes mulsa nectaris stillicidia guttatim rostro decerpunt et uelut lento carenae defruto, quod regalibus ferculis conficitur, auida uiscerum receptacula certatim implere contendunt, modo flauescentes saliculas et crocata genestarum cacumina circumuallantes fertilem praedam numerosis crurum et coxarum oneribus aduehunt, quibus cerea castra conficiunt, modo teretes hederarum corimbos et leuissimos florentis tiliae surculos constipantes multiformem fauorum machinam angulosis et opertis cellulis construunt, cuius artis molimen egregius poeta metrica facundia fretus catalectico uersu creditur cecinisse, cum diceret Cerea gemmatis flauescunt mella canistris...