This hands-on workshop offers an introduction to the analysis of early printed books using computer vision, based on the experience of the Envisioning Dante project led by the Universities of Manchester and Oxford.

Participants will learn how computer vision can be used to segment printed pages and to classify, match, and compare features such as illustrations, text, commentary regions, and the page as a whole. 

No prior experience with computer vision is required, but participants should bring a laptop and, ideally, a Sharpie (some will be provided).

Presenters

Guyda Armstrong is the Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester, and a book historian and early modern literary scholar who works at the intersection of languages, information design, and the digital.

Giles Bergel is a Senior Researcher in Digital Humanities in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He is a book historian by training, with particular interests in cheap print, book illustration, early copyright, and the use of computer vision in bibliographical research.

Rebecca Bowen is an Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Notre Dame. Specializing in the medieval and early modern periods, her research focuses on early Italian lyric poetry and the works of Dante, exploring the relationships between texts, images, and objects.