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I have came across notes about "The Conference of the Birds", and I have seen images of the cover of the manuscript, as well as random pages from it, as can be seen from the Wikipedia entry.

As this manuscript is about 841 years old I would have assumed that it would be in the public domain, but I could not find the original copy.

Any idea whether it exists?

Scene from "The Conference of the Birds" in a Persian miniature. The hoopoe, center right, instructs the other birds on the Sufi path.

Namaskaram
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KingsInnerSoul
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    In which language would you like to find it? It could be that the original Persian version is public-domain but English translations aren't. – Rand al'Thor Nov 18 '18 at 18:24
  • The text is freely available in multiple languages. I am not looking for the text alone. But the whole scan of the original text book. I am sure it exists somewhere because of the individual images of the cover, and random pages from it. – KingsInnerSoul Nov 19 '18 at 00:59
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    I know nothing about copyright law, but is it possible that the text of the story is in the public domain because it's so old but the actual manuscript images aren't? Similarly to how you're not allowed to take photos in some document exhibitions even though the info in the documents is public, or how many scientific journals own the copyright for the final versions of articles they publish even though the ideas therein are public? – Rand al'Thor Nov 19 '18 at 07:59
  • @Randal'Thor I believe that not taking images of certain art is mainly because often enough camera flash damages the art - and high quality images of the art already exists (most often taking images of paintings you like is not that good - because there is a professional photo already in existence). As far as copyright laws: https://www.washcoll.edu/offices/miller-library/copyright/copying-images-of-art.php – KingsInnerSoul Nov 21 '18 at 16:07
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    The manuscript illustrated in the question is not the original manuscript — it is a 15th century copy with paintings added c. 1600 by Habiballah of Sava, currently held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art – Gareth Rees Apr 24 '20 at 16:53

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