Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

What is the recommended publication date on a book with a sketchy original publication date?

For example, I notice that people occasionally change the publication date for Beowulf . Today it was set at 1961, before that it was 700. According to wikipedia, it was composed between the 8th and early 11th century. There were known manuscripts after that, presumably hand-copied ("the" manuscript was burned in a 1731 fire), it was transcribed in 1786, and then it was brought back to life when it was printed in 1815.

So... "publication date" of 700? 1786? 1815?
Thanks. :)

John wrote: "What is the recommended publication date on a book with a sketchy original publication date?"

If there isn't an agreed-upon date, I would leave the original publication date field blank. It may get auto-set by new editions being combined (that's probably where the 1961 came from) but it can always be fixed.