Transkribus and Automated Manuscript Transcription. A case study on Vittorio Alfieri’s Manuscripts

The study explores the use of the Transkribus platform for the automatic transcription of manuscripts, using texts included in the Alfieri 6 manuscript (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana). After an initial test phase with the generic Italian Handwriting M1 model, the results of which proved unsatisfactory, a customised model was created from the M1 model, which obtained a CER of 13.40%. A second training, expanding the ground truth set, reduced the CER to 6.9%, with more accurate transcriptions. Despite the progress, some difficulties in distinguishing between similar letters remain, but the study confirms the effectiveness of Transkribus for transcribing handwritten texts, suggesting the importance of adequate data to improve the quality of automatic transcription.

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Italiano.