The Plate MarkRembrandt · Bartsch 20

Publications and data

Versions, gates, and everything you can download

The record is versioned like software: a release is a snapshot, a released version is never edited, and a correction produces a new version rather than a quiet fix. Version 1.0 is the first one intended to be citable, and it is gated on evidence rather than on a date.

Version 0.9

Released 2026-08-12 · released · no DOI

First public dossier. Circulated for expert review before any DOI deposit. It sets out what the project has established, on what evidence, and — at greater length — what it has not. No claim in it should be cited as settled.

What this version contains

  • Object record established under the identifier NP-RMB-001, every field carrying its evidence and confidence.
  • Acquisition documented: Bonhams, Fine Books and Manuscripts, sale 28358, lot 182, New York, April–May 2023.
  • Consignment route recorded: a European antiquarian dealer, from a private collection in Germany.
  • State atlas published from the New Hollstein entry for no. 170, with all four state descriptions verbatim.
  • Impression census opened with source-backed records drawn from institutional collections.
  • The copper plate's own descent recorded, from possibly Clement de Jonghe in 1679 to a private collection in the United States.
  • Provenance timeline published with the undocumented interval shown at its true length.
  • Research questions board opened, with the state determination as the principal open question.
  • Machine-readable exports published: JSON-LD, IIIF manifest, public read-only API, CSV, BibTeX.
  • Editorial, correction, privacy, rights and conflicts policies published.

Version 1.0 — not yet released

The first citable release, deposited with a DOI. It is gated on evidence, not on a date: it will not be deposited until the items below are done, because a DOI makes a version permanent and citable, and a permanent citation of an unchecked record is worse than no citation at all.

Gates

  1. Gate 1DONE 12 August 2026. Acquisition documentation transcribed: sale, lot, date, and the catalogue entry verbatim.
  2. Gate 2Conservator examination completed and a baseline condition report written by a qualified paper conservator.
  3. Gate 3Recto and verso photographed to a documented standard, with colour target and scale. The auction house's photographs are not a substitute.
  4. Gate 4State determination checked against the catalogue by a specialist in Old Master prints, closing RQ-02.
  5. Gate 5Dimensions remeasured, recording plate and sheet separately, edge by edge.
  6. Gate 6At least one external reviewer has read the record and their corrections have been incorporated.

Everything you can download

Metadata is CC0 1.0. No key, no registration, no attribution required — though a citation helps others trace an error back to its source.
Complete public datasetJSON/api/v1/dataset
Object metadata, linked dataJSON-LD/api/v1/object.jsonld
IIIF Presentation 3.0 manifestIIIF/iiif/np-rmb-001/manifest.json
IIIF collection of comparator impressionsIIIF/iiif/comparators/collection.json
Impression censusCSV/api/v1/census.csv
Impression censusJSON/api/v1/census
BibliographyBibTeX/api/v1/bibliography.bib
Claims with resolved evidenceJSON/api/v1/claims
Research questionsJSON/api/v1/questions
Provenance events, including gapsJSON/api/v1/provenance
State atlasJSON/api/v1/states
Corrections and changelogJSON/api/v1/changelog

Full documentation, including filters, rate limits and worked examples, is on the API page.

How change is recorded

1 logged changes so far, each with the reason it was made.

The record is held as plain files in version control alongside the code, so every change is a commit and the changelog is generated from the record rather than maintained by hand. A superseded claim is deprecated and kept; nothing is deleted.

Corrections and changelog →