Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs

This paper presents a computational approach for detecting the calligraphic footprint of a scribe in a large documentary corpus. The system leverages advances in HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) techniques, usually employed for automatic transcription, but on this occasion used to locate the spec...

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Main Authors: Álvaro Cuéllar, Sònia Boadas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Instituto de Estudios Auriseculares (IDEA) 2025-06-01
Series:Hipogrifo: Revista de Literatura y Cultura del Siglo de Oro
Online Access:https://www.revistahipogrifo.com/index.php/hipogrifo/article/view/1541
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author Álvaro Cuéllar
Sònia Boadas
author_facet Álvaro Cuéllar
Sònia Boadas
author_sort Álvaro Cuéllar
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents a computational approach for detecting the calligraphic footprint of a scribe in a large documentary corpus. The system leverages advances in HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) techniques, usually employed for automatic transcription, but on this occasion used to locate the specific handwriting of interest when dealing with an extensive collection of texts, in which there may be dozens or even hundreds of different hands. We conducted a control experiment with Lope de Vega (a renowned 17th-century Spanish playwright) and the Transkribus platform (user-friendly for researchers who are not computer specialists), obtaining very accurate results: once trained on Lope’s hand and on two hundred other distinct hands, the system can single out Lope’s handwriting in documents beyond the mod el, with high success rates (accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores in the range of 0.95-1.00). These findings pave the way for training models for hands of particular interest (authors, censors, copyists, bureaucrats, actors, etc.) and systematically scanning extant documents in order to detect other instances in which they participated, which could lead to discoveries of historical, literary, and patrimonial significance.
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spelling doaj-art-fa3924c91bd1485d95a2a3784ac1ab452025-08-20T03:23:24ZengInstituto de Estudios Auriseculares (IDEA)Hipogrifo: Revista de Literatura y Cultura del Siglo de Oro2328-13082025-06-0113110.13035/H.2025.13.01.362482Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s AutographsÁlvaro Cuéllar0Sònia Boadas1Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona This paper presents a computational approach for detecting the calligraphic footprint of a scribe in a large documentary corpus. The system leverages advances in HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) techniques, usually employed for automatic transcription, but on this occasion used to locate the specific handwriting of interest when dealing with an extensive collection of texts, in which there may be dozens or even hundreds of different hands. We conducted a control experiment with Lope de Vega (a renowned 17th-century Spanish playwright) and the Transkribus platform (user-friendly for researchers who are not computer specialists), obtaining very accurate results: once trained on Lope’s hand and on two hundred other distinct hands, the system can single out Lope’s handwriting in documents beyond the mod el, with high success rates (accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores in the range of 0.95-1.00). These findings pave the way for training models for hands of particular interest (authors, censors, copyists, bureaucrats, actors, etc.) and systematically scanning extant documents in order to detect other instances in which they participated, which could lead to discoveries of historical, literary, and patrimonial significance. https://www.revistahipogrifo.com/index.php/hipogrifo/article/view/1541
spellingShingle Álvaro Cuéllar
Sònia Boadas
Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
Hipogrifo: Revista de Literatura y Cultura del Siglo de Oro
title Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
title_full Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
title_fullStr Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
title_full_unstemmed Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
title_short Artificial Intelligence for Calligraphic Writer Identification: The Case of Lope de Vega’s Autographs
title_sort artificial intelligence for calligraphic writer identification the case of lope de vega s autographs
url https://www.revistahipogrifo.com/index.php/hipogrifo/article/view/1541
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