D. Aresius api, supra florem collocatae, inscripsit: EX IPSIS, NON IPSOS. Innuebat videlicet, libros non promiscuè carpendos, aut totos transcribendos esse, sed eorum medullam sagaci judicio excerpendam. Eandem praeceptionem nobilis Bibliotheca nostrae Canonicae ad Sanctam Mariam de Passione Mediolani foribus suis praefixam exhibet his verbis: Ut e floribus apes. Ad rem praesentem Sanctus Basilius: Veluti apes non omnibus similiter insidunt, neque ex eis, ad quos accedunt; omnia auferre conantur, sed quantum ipsis ad opus necessarium fuerit, comprehendentes, reliquum dimittunt. Nos etiam ut sobrii sapientesque, quantum congruum nobis, propinquumque veritati ex ipsis fuerit, prosequamur, reliquum praetereamus.
(Mundus Symbolicus, lib. VIII, cap. I, nº 20)
Monsignor Aresius wrote for the bee placed on top of a flower: EX IPSIS, NON IPSOS. By this he meant that books must not be equally chosen, nor transcribed as a whole, but just their pith must be grasped with acute judgement. This very same lesson is written on the doors of the noble library of Saint Mary of the Passion in Milan, using these words: Ut e floribus apes. Regarding this matter Saint Basilius states: like bees do not settle on all flowers, nor from those which they approach strive to take all away, but they take only so much as is fitting, and they leave the rest; we, as sober and wise men, must pursue [in those books] what is fitting for us and akin to truth and pass by the rest.
(Mundus Symbolicus, lib. VIII, cap. I, nº 20)