11 March, 5pm, Horton Room, Weston Library
Dr Paweł Figurski Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
eCatalogus+: A Digital Tool for the Automated Study of Latin Manuscripts (Liturgical Case Studies)
The presentation introduces eCatalogus+, an innovative digital platform designed for the comprehensive description and automated analysis of medieval Latin manuscripts, with a particular focus on liturgical sources. At its core, eCatalogus+ combines HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) technology with advanced tools that improve transcription accuracy and enable the automatic analysis of manuscript contents. Its main features—powerful search functions, interactive databases, and collaborative research modules—facilitate both individual and collective work on medieval texts. The system has been successfully implemented in research projects such as eCLLA+ and Liturgica Poloniae: A Descriptive Catalogue of Polish Liturgical Manuscripts, where it supports the study, cataloguing, and interpretation of medieval liturgical sources. Through selected liturgical case studies, the presentation will demonstrate the platform’s research potential and its contribution to the evolving field of digital manuscript studies. Ultimately, the talk aims to show how digital technologies are transforming the study of medieval manuscripts, opening new avenues for both academic inquiry and public engagement.
Paweł Figurski is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The focus of his research is on the history of liturgy and its political significance as well as on medieval manuscript culture, book illumination, and the theology of politics in the Early and High Middle Ages. He is also an active researcher, database analyst, and developer of tools for automated research on the Latin liturgical tradition in the field of digital humanities. He is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of two projects: “Liturgica Poloniae…”, funded by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education (NPRH), and “Dangerous Prayers…”, funded by the Polish National Science Centre (SONATA)