Jan Odstrčilík
The project is dedicated to the development, training, and experimental testing of digital tools for the needs of medieval studies. The aim is to adapt the spectrum of current methods in the digital humanities to the special requirements of textual and material sources from the Middle Ages. One focus is on handwritten text recognition (HTR), which uses artificial intelligence to automatically convert historical manuscripts and late medieval multilingual texts into searchable text. Models are being developed that take into account different font types, linguistic varieties, and the complex materiality of medieval tradition.
Geelhaar, Tim, Tobias Hodel, Jan Odstrčilík, and Michael Schonhardt, Automatic Text Recognition for the Humanities – A Critical Guide (Bielefeld: Digital Humanities Research, forthcoming)
Odstrčilík, Jan; Pürstinger, Leon; Grifoni, Cinzia. IMAFO Winter School: Teaching Handwritten Text Recognition for Historical Documents. Poster presented at AI meets Humanities 2025, Vienna, Austria, 24 June 2025.
Pürstinger, Leon; Grifoni, Cinzia; Odstrčilík, Jan; Geelhaar, Tim. Developing and Curating an HTR Model for the Carolingian Minuscule. Poster presented at AI meets Humanities 2025, Vienna, Austria, 24 June 2025.
Odstrčilík, Jan. Comparison of Various HTR Solutions. Demonstration presented at AI meets Humanities 2025, Vienna, Austria, 24 June 2025.
Michalcová, Anna; Odstrčilík, Jan; Filipová, Jitka. Handwritten Text Recognition in Multilingual Manuscript Tradition: Medieval Chronicle of Přibík Pulkava. Poster presented at AI meets Humanities 2025, Vienna, Austria, 24 June 2025.
Discovering the Power of AI for Reading Medieval Manuscripts: HTR Winter School 2022
Winter School of HTR of Medieval Documents 2024 - Growth and Vision for the Future
Advancing Medieval Manuscript Transcription: Insights from the Vienna HTR Winter School
Ishac, Ephrem A. From Vienna to the World: Launching the First Public Syriac HTR Model on Transkribus. In: The Digital Orientalist, 18 February 2025
Pürstinger, Leon.The Significance of Handwritten Text Recognition for Graduate Students: Experiences from Organizing Several HTR Winter Schools. In: Newsletter of the Graduate Student Committee of the Medieval Academy of America, vol. 16, no. 3, December 2024.
