N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) has been called the most influential individual in Danish history. Upon his death, in addition to a large published body of work, he left behind no less than 90,000 handwritten, unpublished pages, which today reside in the N. F. S. Grundtvig Archive at the Royal Danish Library.
To date, the archive has been difficult for most to access, partly due to its unwieldy organization and partly because specialized training is required to decipher Grundtvig’s hard-to-read Gothic handwriting. Consequently, research has only sparsely examined the extensive and rich source material.
This project aims to remedy this by establishing the research infrastructure Grundtvig’s Manuscripts Online (GMO) over a 4-year period, making the entire archive publicly accessible in a transcribed and digitally searchable form.
The project is made possible by the Royal Danish Library’s digitization of the archive. Based on this, we will carry out a digital transcription of all the archive’s manuscripts using Transkribus, a software for automated handwriting recognition. This task has previously been unfeasible due to the material’s sheer volume.
With this new access to the archive, the final major step in creating a comprehensive foundation for exploring Grundtvig’s life and work will be taken.
GMO will be established on Transkribus consortium’s platforms and will be displayed as in the example below, where users can see the digital image of the manuscript page alongside a transcription of the text.
Here is an example of GMO’s current text recognition model, which achieves a recognition rate of 98–99.5%. Only three words contain erroneous characters. Additionally, over- and underlinings are not yet displayed.
Result
Thanks to GMO, the archive will become:
- Readable: The minimum 90-95% accurate transcription generated by Transkribus makes it possible to work with the fascicles, even if one cannot read Grundtvig’s handwriting beforehand.
- Organized: By establishing an archive guide, users gain insight into the material groups and patterns the archive is divided into.
- Searchable: By searching for topics, names, and years, users can effectively explore the archive.
- Research-supportive: It will become possible to find new texts that illuminate and nuance the existing picture of Grundtvig’s life and the creation of his writings, including his use of sources and interaction with contemporaries.
Potential
The archive contains a wealth of material that opens up numerous new perspectives for Grundtvig research. Among many examples, this could include:
- Grundtvig’s use of Old English imagery and literature,
- The societal-oriented content of his sermons,
- Grundtvig’s involvement in the Schleswig question and minority discussions,
- Grundtvig’s view on the relationship between the folk high school as a ”school for life” and teaching practical skills.
With the platform, it will also be possible for students in schools and high schools as well as university students to examine unknown material. Thus, GMO will stimulate the curious ”detective” to conduct their own investigations.