Handwritten Text Recognition for notarial registers (15th-16th centuries): an experiment

Abstract

The report describes the experimentation of automatic handwriting recognition with the Transkribus platform for some registers of a late fifteenth/early sixteenth-century Benevento notary, with the goal of creating an automatic transcription that includes automatic dissolving of abbreviations to create a more readable text. This experimentation is particularly significant because notarial registers are often the only numerically important source for Renaissance southern Italy, and an automatic transcription, even a less than perfect one, can be a valuable tool for facilitating access to these sources.