# Victorian — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Victorian**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 7 of 8 research dimensions.
> 8 sources attached. 1 claim graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Multiple type styles per line, engraved illustration, fleurons and rules, black ink on white stock

**Recognise it by:** Many contrasting display types on a single sheet, wood and metal faces at varying sizes stacked to fill it, relief-printed in black ink on white paper, now and then with one coloured ink in a run of its own. The diagnostic condition is inventory-driven variety: the faces do not agree because they were never chosen to agree, and a page that mixes faces from a coordinated family is a modern pastiche. Neo-Baroque is ornamental by design; this is ornamental by accumulation. Apothecary uses the same era's serifs but few of them, precisely.

**Family:** Maximal & Ornamental
**Era:** 19th-century
**Native medium:** print

**Scope:** The visual register of nineteenth-century jobbing and display printing under the Victorian name: wood-type display faces and heavy ornament. Its letterforms predate the 1837 reign; the face-mixing rules are Aesthetary's reading.

## What it is arguing

A jobbing printer owns a case of types and must fill a page with what is in the shop. Variety comes from inventory rather than intention, and every line is set in whatever face best fits the measure and the emphasis it needs.

**It refuses:** Refuses a single unifying typeface, and refuses whitespace that could be carrying another line of copy.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Neo-Baroque
- Art Nouveau
- Apothecary
- Steampunk — A future imagined in 1890; never stops reading as costume
- Circus

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): From our catalogue entry · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/victorian.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **layout** — Composition: centred lines, rule-divided bands.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **typography** — Typography: wood type, relief manufacture.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography
- **hierarchy** — Rank changes per line, carried by a face change and a size change together. Not a scale ramp — a sequence of independent decisions.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Hierarchy
- **imagery** — Imagery: engraved illustration.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: fleurons, rules, relief impression.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### From our catalogue entry · disputed

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **density** — Density: "typographic density from hot-metal economics".
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Product area: Density

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **typography** — Type variety comes from inventory, not from a coordinated family. Faces on one page do not agree because they were never chosen to agree; a page mixing weights of one superfamily is a modern pastiche.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Typography

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Color** — In one rural English printer's archive (1885–1904), the vast majority of work is black ink on white paper, the most cost-effective approach, with occasional coloured paper.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-from-surface-2` · Covers Evidence is one rural English printer's archive, 1885-1904; the author states the approach was commonplace across the UK..
- **Surface** — The work is relief-printed: an inked raised surface (wood or metal type) pressed onto paper.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1`
- **Surface** — In one rural English printer's archive (1885–1904), the vast majority of work is black ink on white paper, the most cost-effective approach, with occasional coloured paper.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers Evidence is one rural English printer's archive, 1885-1904; the author states the approach was commonplace across the UK..
- **Surface** — Coloured ink, when used, is limited (red and blue in the documented shop), one colour per press run.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-3` · Covers C. Armstrong/E. Pruddah collection, Hexham..
- **Surface** — Cheaper machine-made paper was one of the conditions that made large display printing possible.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-4`
- **Surface** — Traditional commercial letterpress aimed at no visible impression in the paper; a deep debossed bite is a feature of the modern letterpress revival, not of the period trade.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-5` · Covers Encyclopaedic support only; not specific to Victorian jobbing work..
- **Surface** — The stained, torn, yellowed condition of surviving sheets is the result of survival, not of the original surface.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-6`
- **Form** — The documented output is flat single sheets (posters, handbills, playbills); the only three-dimensional organisation found is folding, as in a playbill folded into four pages.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers Folded programmes are a later theatrical use of the playbill format, not jobbing posters..

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Motion** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Victorian jobbing print: a case of unrelated faces, one decision per line, centred bands divided by rules and fleurons, black ink on white with one coloured ink at most, and no space left that could carry another line.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/victorian.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#FFFFFF` | — | The page: white, as printed. | On the record |
| ink | `#1C1712` | 18.1:1 | Everything set: text, display, rules, fleurons. | Web translation |
| second | `#8C2A21` | 8.5:1 | The one coloured ink: emphasis lines, the current page, fleurons. | Web translation |
| faded | `#5A4E40` | 8.1:1 | Secondary lines on the web page. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-from-surface-2` → Print black ink on white paper; that was most of the work.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-3` → Use a coloured ink sparingly, one colour at a time (red or blue in the documented shop).
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-6` → Do not age the paper: yellowing and stains are survival, not the printed look.
- **Web translation** — Choose oxblood as the second ink. _Why:_ Red is one of the two documented coloured inks; the exact red is ours. (`claim:kcc:surface-3`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not say which red or blue. _Instead:_ Blue is equally documented as a second ink; pick one hue per page and do not claim it as the period colour.

### Typography

Family: a case of unrelated display faces (the room's inventory), with Vollkorn for text at reading length. Stack: `"VollkornX", Georgia, serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display-large | clamp(2rem, 6vw, 3.6rem) | 400 | 1.05 | not specified | not specified | — | The line that leads. Face chosen for that line. |
| display-small | 1.28rem | 400 | 1.08 | not specified | not specified | — | Supporting lines, each in another face. |
| text | 1.1rem | 400 | 1.58 | not specified | not specified | 38rem | Sentences on the web page, centred on the bill's axis. |

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:vi-r1` → Take type variety from the inventory, not from a coordinated family; faces do not agree.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Change rank per line with face and size together; no modular scale.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Set display in wood type and relief-printed metal faces.
- **Web translation** — Keep one sturdy text face for sentences a reader must follow. _Why:_ Display variety is the rule for lines of the bill; long web text needs to be read, and no rule governs it. (`token_rule:vi-r1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not name the faces. _Instead:_ The five display faces here are the room's inventory, not a period set. Any case works if its faces were never chosen to agree.

### Grid and layout

One centred column of bands, divided by rules and fleurons. No grid, and no whitespace kept for elegance.

Tokens: measure `46rem` · line-gap `0.28rem`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Centre every line; divide bands with rules.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry · disputed** · `token_rule:density-6` → Keep density high: space that could carry another line of copy carries it.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a column grid. _Instead:_ Stay in one centred column; if a grid is needed, say it is yours.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: rule `1px solid #1C1712` · rule-double `3px double #1C1712` · radius `0` · fleuron `❦`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Use rules and fleurons as the furniture.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-5` → Print flat: no debossed bite, no inset shadow.
- **Web translation** — Square corners throughout. _Why:_ Rules are straight brass; nothing in the record is rounded. (`token_rule:surface-8`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Illustrate with engraving.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources name engraving but supply none we may show: no engraving is held. _Instead:_ Use real period engravings with their source, or none. Do not imitate engraving with filters or generated art.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-4` → No photography.

### Inventory

The faces come from what is in the case. A page that agrees with itself is the modern pastiche.

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:vi-r1` → Never set a page from one superfamily's weights; that is pastiche.
- **Web translation** — Pick each line's face for the measure and the emphasis that line needs. _Why:_ The argument: every line is set in whatever face best fits the measure and the emphasis. (`intent`)

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A line of the bill boxed in brass rule: a pointing hand and the label in a condensed wood-type face.

- Anatomy: 1px ink rule on all sides, doubled outside; manicule (☞) before the label; label in a display face from the case, capitals
- Tokens: border `3px double #1C1712` · background `#FFFFFF` · radius `0` · shadow `none`
- State, default: Ink label in a double rule on white.
- State, hover: The label changes to the second ink (oxblood).
- State, focus: 2px oxblood outline, 3px outside the rule.
- State, active: Ink field, white label: printed solid.
- State, disabled: Single hairline rule, faded ink label.
- Accessibility: Ink on white is 18.1:1; oxblood on white 8.5:1.
- Accessibility: The manicule is aria-hidden; the label says what happens.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Box the button in rule and set its label in a display face. _Why:_ Bands are divided by rules and the furniture is rules and fleurons; a button is a small ruled band. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Web translation** — No deep debossed impression, inset shadow or pressed-in look. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:surface-5`)

#### Card

A handbill: centred lines, each in its own face and size, closed with a rule.

- Anatomy: double-rule frame; three to five centred lines, each a different face; a rule or fleuron under the last line
- Tokens: border `3px double #1C1712` · align `center` · padding `0.75rem 1rem`
- State, default: Double rule on white.
- State, hover: The lead line takes the second ink.
- State, focus: 2px oxblood outline outside the frame.
- Accessibility: The whole card is one link.
- Accessibility: Line order in the markup is reading order; no line is only decoration.
- **Web translation** — Change rank per line with a face change and a size change together, never a scale ramp. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Set the card's lines from unrelated faces; a coordinated family is pastiche. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:vi-r1`)
- **Web translation** — Centre the lines and close the card with a rule. _Why:_ Composition is centred lines in rule-divided bands; a card is one band. (`token_rule:layout-3`)

#### Input

A ruled line to write on, its label set above in a small display face.

- Anatomy: label above, centred, in the case's small capitals face; a bottom rule in ink, full width; white field
- Tokens: border `0 0 2px 0 solid #1C1712` · background `#FFFFFF` · radius `0` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: 2px ink rule under the field.
- State, focus: 2px oxblood outline around the field.
- State, error: Message in oxblood below, beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Dotted rule.
- Accessibility: The label is real text above the field.
- Accessibility: Error text is words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Draw the field as a rule, not a box. _Why:_ Rules are the documented furniture; a bill has lines to fill, not boxes. (`token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources describe no period forms. _Instead:_ Do not dress the field as a ledger or a ticket stub; a plain rule is enough.

#### Navigation

One centred line of the bill: the sections set in different faces, parted by fleurons, the current one in the second ink.

- Anatomy: centred line; each link in a different face from the case; fleuron or bullet separators; current page in oxblood
- Tokens: align `center` · separator `❦` · current `#8C2A21`
- State, default: Ink links, underlined in oxblood.
- State, hover: The link takes the second ink.
- State, focus: 2px oxblood outline.
- State, current: Oxblood, not a link.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: Separators are aria-hidden.
- **Web translation** — Set each navigation item in a different face. _Why:_ Variety from inventory, carried to the one line every page repeats. (`token_rule:vi-r1`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page in the second ink. _Why:_ Coloured ink, when used, is limited to one colour per run. (`claim:kcc:surface-3`)

### Motion

- **Web translation** — Do not animate. State changes are instant ink swaps. _Why:_ Letterpress does not move; the record gives motion no place. (`claim:motion-reason`)

### Deliberately not added

- **A particular set of faces** (typography): The record holds the method (variety from inventory), not the faces.
- **Any engraving we could show** (imagery): Engraving is on the record; no licensed engraving is held, and none is imitated.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The research record does not establish them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented rules.
- **Any position on screen motion** (motion): Letterpress does not move. Choosing none is this grammar's translation.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | — | yes |
| Density | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Not specified by the source: form · Specified: motif, surface, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | — | no |

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Form

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

22 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 13 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 1 further research dimension produced no rule (Motion). This rubric is silent on it. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: Many contrasting display types on a single sheet, wood and metal faces at varying sizes stacked to fill it, relief-printed in black ink on white paper, now and then with one coloured ink in a run of its own. The diagnostic condition is inventory-driven variety: the faces do not agree because they were never chosen to agree, and a page that mixes faces from a coordinated family is a modern pastiche. Neo-Baroque is ornamental by design; this is ornamental by accumulation. Apothecary uses the same era's serifs but few of them, precisely.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom: our research brief does record failure modes to avoid, listed under avoidance below. They are recorded judgement, not requirements.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Composition: centred lines, rule-divided bands.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: wood type, relief manufacture.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank changes per line, carried by a face change and a size change together. Not a scale ramp — a sequence of independent decisions.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Density: "typographic density from hot-metal economics".
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: engraved illustration.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Form / motif / surface / technique: fleurons, rules, relief impression.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Type variety comes from inventory, not from a coordinated family. Faces on one page do not agree because they were never chosen to agree; a page mixing weights of one superfamily is a modern pastiche.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No single typeface family.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No generous whitespace.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No modern hierarchy ramp.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No photography.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No colour beyond limited ink on stock.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Neo-Baroque: accumulation versus designed ornament. Against Apothecary: many faces versus few, precise. Anti-signature: using a coordinated superfamily makes it pastiche. Adding whitespace for elegance makes it Neo-Baroque.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: unifying the type.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: opening the density..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Neo-Baroque? That language is: Ornament plus deep shadow plus symmetry; theatrical rather than dense
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Neo-Baroque than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Art Nouveau? That language is: Organic line integrated with lettering; nature stylised, not depicted
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Art Nouveau than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Steampunk? That language is: A future imagined in 1890; never stops reading as costume
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Steampunk than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Circus? That language is: Showmanship; bulbs and banners are the tell
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Circus than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

**Not covered at all:** Motion: Not specified by the source. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `victorian` · status `needs_review` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/victorian.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/victorian.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._