Handwritten text recognition is a promising and relatively new field of research, of particular importance due to the increasing amount of digitized cultural heritage objects, especially historical sources. In recent years, several neural networks have been developed for this purpose, and user-friendly interfaces are now available that allow these deep learning techniques to be used also by scholars without specific computer skills.

This webinar, organised by the CNR ISPC researchers Gemma Colesanti and Vera Isabell Schwarz-Ricci, brings together researchers from different fields involved in ongoing or recently concluded projects dealing with the application or development of neural networks for the automatic recognition of handwriting on different media, but with a specific focus on medieval documents and manuscripts. The main goal is to offer an overview of the tested technologies or under development in this field and to discuss the different experiences.