User:Dsmdgold/Unknown manuscript images

This is a gallery of manuscript images which I have not been able to identify the source mansucript. If you know, or discover the any information about these images, especially the shelfmark and location of these manuscripts, please let me know.


Notes on this category: This category, and its subcategories, is for images from illuminated manuscripts. For the purpose of this category an illuminated manuscript is defined as a manuscript with any amount of decoration, or a printed manuscript that was hand-decorated (these are very rare). It should not include images of woodcuts, or other printed decorations, even if the decorations are hand-tinted.

This category has an extensive set of subcategories. There are five main subcategories:

  • Manuscripts by location - for categories indicating where a manuscript is currently kept, for example manuscripts inthe British Library are in Category:British Library manuscripts.
  • Manuscripts by style - for categories indicating the style of given manuscript, for example manuscripts produced during the Anglo-Saxon period in England are in Category:Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. (manuscripts produced during this period elsewhere would be in a different category.)
  • Manuscripts by century - for categories indicating in which century a manuscript was produced. When the exact debate is disputed or unknown, then latest possible date should be used.
  • Manuscripts by type - for categories indicating the type of book the manuscript is, for example Gospel Books are in Category:Gospel Books
  • Manuscripts by creator - for categories indicating who the primary illuminator or scribe of a manuscript, if known, was. Most manuscripts' illuminators were anonymous and their manuscripts will not be able to be placed in a subcategory of this category. This category should not be used to categorize images by author of the text. (To categorize by author use a subcategory of Maunscipts by type.)

Each of these subcategories is a "holding category" for further subcategories, and no images should be placed in them.

Ideally every image should be placed in a category for all images from the image's source manuscript (e.g. Category:Book of Kells and Category:British Library, Royal 2 B XV). The manuscript category should then be placed in as many of the main sub-categories as possible. Almost every manuscript should be able to be catorgized by location, type, style, and century. Most manuscripts will not be able to be categorized by creator.

If, as is often the case, there is not enough information to identify a manuscript, then the image can be placed in appropiate subcategories. For example, if an image is identified as being from 15th century Book of hours, then the image could categorized by Century and manuscript type, and placed in Category:15th Century manuscripts and Category:Books of Hours. If there is not enough identifying information with the image, (for example, the uploader only provides something like "Picture of Foo, from a medieval manuscript) then th image can placed in this category until it is better identified.