New technologies for the digital documentation of manuscript archives: digitization and documentation of a 19th Century Greek manuscript archive using Transkribus

In the field of historical research new technologies are coming to enrich the research techniques in manuscript sources. Nowadays, the processing of the identification and transcription of handwritten texts occupies a diverse research field. In this paper, the recent developments in the digital documentation of manuscripts are presented. After a review of the technologies that serve the process of automatic transcription of handwritten texts, the Transkribus platform was selected and used as a study case for the utilization and implementation of HTR technology to Greek manuscripts. Then, to make the information available to the public, Greenstone digital library creation software was introduced. From the process of extracting and deconstructing the information of a 19th century manuscript file, of Larisa's notary A. Filios and making it available to researchers, it emerged that the increasing use of such technologies overturns basic assumptions and at the same time configures new cost and time conditions, ensuring the possibility of increased interaction among knowledge sectors.