ABSTRACT
At the tensest moment of the conclave that would elect the 56-year-old Maffeo Barberini to the papacy as Urban VIII in August 1623, a prophetic event occurred. 1 A swarm of bees entered the Vatican palace from the meadows facing Tuscany, and settled on the wall of Maffeo's cell. It seemed that Divine Providence had sent this portent to announce the imminent accession to the papacy of a member of that Tuscan family whose coat of arms had long since been transformed from one showing three wasps into an emblem of three bees.
