This independent public beta presents the surviving narrative through Wikimedia Commons images. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by the City of Bayeux, the Bayeux Museum, Wikimedia Commons, UNESCO, or any cited author or institution.
This is a public beta. The transcriptions, translations, commentary, citation locators and scene and annotation positions have not completed scholarly review. They may contain errors. Image reuse remains subject to the rights notices below; public availability does not imply museum permission or endorsement.
Image reuse status
Wikimedia Commons identifies this reproduction as public domain under its PD-Art policy. Separately, the museum’s panorama terms permit non-commercial consultation and require City of Bayeux permission for HD reproductions of details. This project’s non-commercial purpose does not itself resolve those conditions. Permission or another documented basis for this project’s image use has not yet been recorded.
The listed dimensions and SHA-256 identify the verified master input. The public derivative passed the project’s matching full-pixel Deep Zoom verification gate.
Required image credit
Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry – 11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, ENSICAEN. Photos: 2017 – La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie.
Wikimedia Commons identifies this reproduction as public domain under its PD-Art policy. Separately, the museum’s panorama terms permit non-commercial consultation and require City of Bayeux permission for HD reproductions of details. This project’s non-commercial purpose does not itself resolve those conditions. Permission or another documented basis for this project’s image use has not yet been recorded.
The overhead opening refers to the British Museum’s September 2026–July 2027 loan exhibition, not the tapestry’s permanent home in Bayeux. It uses historical satellite and vertical aerial imagery, not a live view or a reconstruction of the exhibition interior. This project is not affiliated with either museum, Google or the imagery providers.
Intro assets are cropped, normally resampled to geographic coordinates where necessary, and compressed for display. They contain no generated or reconstructed buildings and remain under their source terms, outside the code and editorial licences. The animation uses self-hosted files with no live or metered map service.
The introduction uses one local device preference to remember that it has been seen. No cookies, tracking or visitor data are sent.
Interactive gallery study
The optional 3D view uses an original, simplified Blender model of a long glazed case in a pale gallery. It is a conceptual installation, not a measured reconstruction or an officially approved design for the British Museum. Its visual reference is the exhibition designer’s published project.
The actual scan is mapped uniformly onto the case: nothing is generated, reconstructed or retouched in the tapestry. The model contains no embedded tapestry images; its live image layers use the same verified Deep Zoom service as Bird’s-eye. Perspective and browser lighting are presentation effects, not evidence about the object or its display conditions. See the geometry provenance and coordinate record.
Editorial method
How the notes are made
Scene titles, summaries, English translations and annotation prose are newly written drafts for this project. Commentary is paraphrased rather than copied. Notes distinguish observation, context, interpretation or conservation, name their current references, and identify contested readings.
The visible ending is treated as the end of the surviving embroidery—not proof of the work's original ending. Nothing missing is reconstructed. This public beta is available before scholarly review and verification of the final image coordinates are complete.
Transcription is diplomatic in intent: stitched case, unusual letter forms and separate labels are retained where the research images permit. Conventions vary between the two draft source sets and remain subject to palaeographic review. For Harold, the project renders Latin dux contextually as “earl.”
Bibliography
33 cited sources
Bibliographic references and available locators are listed below. Some claim-specific locators remain to be verified.
Application code is released under the MIT License. Original editorial content is released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
The tapestry imagery is explicitly excluded from both licences. Its reuse is governed by the source notices above and applicable law.
Corrections and takedown requests
Accuracy is an ongoing responsibility. Please open a public issue with a scene number, the relevant source, and the requested correction, or use the same route for a rights concern.