N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) has been called the most influential individual in Danish history. Upon his death, he left behind no less than 90,000 handwritten, unpublished pages, in addition to a large body of published works. Today, those manuscripts reside in the N. F. S. Grundtvig Archive at the Royal Danish Library.
The archive has been difficult to access, partly due to its complicated 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 these challenges 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.
Using a handwriting recognition software called Transkribus, GMO transcribes all the manuscripts in the Archive, a project that was previously considered unfeasible due to the sheer volume of material.
New access to the archive provided by GMO will initiate the final major step for exploring Grundtvig’s life and work.
The infrastructure will appear on the Transkribus consortium’s platforms, where users can see digital images of manuscript pages alongside transcriptions of texts, as in the sample page provided below.
An example of GMO’s current text recognition model, which achieves a recognition rate of 98–99.5%.
Result
As a result of GMO, the archive will become:
- Readable: An accurate transcription generated by Transkribus makes it possible to work with the fascicles, even if one cannot read Grundtvig’s handwriting.
- User-friendly: An archive guide provides insights into the material groups and patterns of the archive’s divisions.
- Searchable: Users can effectively explore the archive by searching for topics, names, and years.
- Research-supportive: Researchers can find texts that illuminate and enhance the existing picture of Grundtvig’s life and writings, including how he used sources and interacted with contemporaries.
Potential
The archive contains a wealth of previously unknown material that might potentially open numerous new questions in Grundtvig research, such as:
- How Grundtvig used of Old English literature and imagery,
- What societal-oriented content appears in his sermons,
- How Grundtvig became involved in the Schleswig question and minority discussions,
- How Grundtvig viewed the relationship between the folk high school as a ”school for life” and teaching practical skills.
The platform goes beyond scholarly research. Using GMO, students at all levels can examine unknown material beyond the questions above. And the everyday, curious “detective” will be empowered to conduct investigations according to their interests.