The Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts content is now available for download and reuse. Although still technically in copyright in the UK (and a number of other common law territories) the images are being made available under a Public Domain Mark* which indicates that there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, adaptation, republication or sharing of the content available from the site.
However the British Library asks that anyone reusing digital objects from this collection applies the following principles:
- Please respect the creators – ensure traditional cultural expressions and all ethical concerns in the use of the material are considered, and any information relating to the creator is clear and accurate. Please note, any adaptations made to an item should not be attributed to the original creator and should not be derogatory to the originating cultures or communities.
- Please credit the source of the material – providing a link back to the image on the British Library’s website will encourage others to explore and use the collections.
- Please share knowledge where possible – please annotate, tag and share derivative works with others as well as the Library wherever possible.
- Support the Public Domain – users of public domain works are asked to support the efforts of the Library to care for, preserve, digitise and make public domain works available. This support could include monetary contributions or work in kind, particularly when the work is being used for commercial or other for-profit purposes.
- Please preserve all public domain marks and notices attached to the works – this will notify other users that the images are free from copyright restrictions and encourage greater use of the collection.
This usage guide is based on goodwill. It is not a legal contract. We ask that you respect it.
Additional digitised manuscript material is also available from the British Library and high resolution images can be sourced from Images Online. Please see further online resources for British Library Illuminated Manuscripts for more details.
*Copyright status of manuscript material: The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (as amended) states that unpublished literary and artistic works remain in copyright in the UK until at least 31 December 2039. Therefore important parts of the library’s collection remain in copyright, including very old manuscripts. However for anonymous unpublished material created many centuries ago and in the public domain in most other countries, the Library believes this material to be very unlikely to offend anyone. As an institution whose role it is to support access to knowledge, we have therefore taken the decision to release certain digitised images technically still in copyright in the UK under the Public Domain Mark. For any further questions please contact copyright@bl.uk