Automatic Layout Analysis and Storage of Digitized Medieval Books

With almost twenty years of expertise in the field of computer methods in the humanities, the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of Trier has recently been partner in two projects in the field of medieval manuscript studies: Virtuelles Skriptorium St. Matthias reconstructed the stock of medieval texts in the abbey of St Matthias in Trier by digitizing and publishing more than 450 manuscripts. eCodicology aimed to develop, test, and optimize new algorithms that automatically detect the macro- and microstructural layout elements on manuscript pages. This article discusses the workflows and technologies of both projects with a focus on the potential and limits of machine-reading technologies.