Material
Continuing the work initiated at the HTR Winter School 2025, we will focus on the autograph letters of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I from the second half of the seventeenth century. Leopold’s handwriting is notorious among historians for its irregularity and illegibility, gradually deteriorating over five decades from being relatively easy to read in his early years to virtually indecipherable. Participants will transcribe German letters of varying degrees of difficulty, using contemporary transcriptions and later editions (which are rarely perfect and complete) and keeping an eye on the gradual deterioration of this handwriting. Our primary goals are to refine the existing – already powerful – HTR model to the next level and to test the possibilities of Transkribus in deciphering this fascinating, though challenging, epistolographic corpus of some 5,000 letters, still largely untouched by historians.
Requirements
Good or advanced knowledge of German palaeography. Familiarity with Romance languages is an advantage, as Leopold frequently interspersed his German letters with Latin, Italian, or Spanish phrases. Most importantly, we require curiosity, patience, and a readiness to solve palaeographic puzzles.
Supervisors
Petr Maťa
Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Petra Křenková
Charles University in Prague