Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	139
Title	The Digital Scribe: Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) of Medieval Documents
Date/Time	Monday 3 July 2017: 11.15-12.45
Sponsor	Project 'Recognition & Enrichment of Archival Documents' (READ)
Organiser	Tobias Hodel, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich
Moderator/Chair	Johanna Green, Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute, University of Glasgow
Paper 139-a	From Memoria to the Memory of the Turning Points of Life: Matricula-Online and HTR (Language: English) Elena Mühlbauer, Archiv, Bistum Passau Herbert Wurster, Archiv, Bistum Passau Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Historiography - Modern Scholarship; Local History; Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 139-b	Transkribus and the Archives of a Brigittine Monastery: Making Digital Editions of Naantali Documents (Language: English) Maria Kallio, National Archives of Finland, Helsinki Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Historiography - Medieval; Manuscripts and Palaeography; Monasticism
Paper 139-c	Sending 15th-Century Missives through Algorithms: Testing and Evaluating HTR with 2,200 Documents (Language: English) Tobias Hodel, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Historiography - Medieval; Local History; Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract	Transcriptions and editions are still mostly produced by human effort but advances in automatic layout analysis and text recognition can enable researchers to work with medieval sources in new ways. This panel will showcase the Transkribus transcription tool, which makes it possible for users to automatically transcribe and search digital images of handwritten historical documents. The panel will demonstrate how this technology has been applied to different sets of medieval documents: from 15th-century missives in early modern German to sacramental registers and Brigittine charters. This new technology promises to facilitate transcription and research for scholars, archivists, and the public.