A deep learning experiment for semantic segmentation of overlapping characters in palimpsests

Palimpsests refer to historical manuscripts where erased writings have been partially covered by the superimposition of a second writing. By employing imaging techniques, e.g., multispectral imaging, it becomes possible to identify features that are imperceptible to the naked eye, including faded and erased inks. When dealing with overlapping inks, Artificial Intelligence techniques can be utilized to disentangle complex nodes of overlapping letters. In this work, we propose deep learning-based semantic segmentation as a method for identifying and segmenting individual letters in overlapping characters. The experiment was conceived as a proof of concept, focusing on the palimpsests of the Ars Grammatica by Prisciano as a case study. Furthermore, caveats and prospects of our approach combined with multispectral imaging are also discussed

ERC AdG 882588 PAGES : Priscian's Ars grammatica in European scriptoria : a Millennium of Latin and Greek scholarship : a project that relies on the manuscript tradition of the text

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Greco antico nell’Occidente carolingio: frammenti di testi attici nell’Ars di Prisciano

Sono stata promotrice di una ricerca riguardante la trasmissione di una parte dell' Ars del grammatico Prisciano contenente un lessico greco-latino ricco di esempi della letteratura greca del periodo attico. Un consistente gruppo di studiosi, tra cui io stessa, ha elaborato il primo studio, multidisciplinare e collettivo, su questo testo finora mal compreso. L'organizzazione materiale del convegno è stata preceduta da un periodo di intenso scambio di materiali e di idee con i relatori

Varrone in Prisciano, un interlocutore mancato

Quoted about fifty times in the Ars, Varro is for Priscian only one of the many auctores veteres or vetustissimi whose linguistic peculiarities he considered worthy of mention in his grammatical treatises. Indeed, no echoes of Varronian theories (except for three short passages, GL, ii pp. 8 2-4 and 30 14-21 about nomina and formae litterarum and GL, ii p. 333 1-16 about the inflection of Greek nouns) can be surely detected in the Ars, not even in books xvii and xviii about syntax, even though it is likely that Varro, the only one among the Romans, had extensively dealt with syntactical problems (verba coniuncta) in the De lingua Latina xiv-xxv. In this paper I argue that almost all quotations of Varronian passages in Priscian’s works are taken from intermediate sources, such as Flavius Caper; only two of the passages mentioned above could possibly have been taken directly from Varro’s works, namely the very rare De antiquitate litterarum and De origine linguae Latinae

Tradizione e testo nel libro 18 dell’Ars di Prisciano

In this paper I discuss some passages in Priscian’s Ars book 18, taking into account the whole Carolingian and South-Italian tradition of the text. Every passage shows a different feature of transmission and presents different problems in the reconstruction of both the archetypal and the original form, which in some occasions were altered or concealed by the intervention of later erudite masters

Quattro passi nell'Ars di Prisciano

In this paper I have examined four passages from Book 18 of Priscian's Ars and explained the connected critical-textual problems due to the complex transmission of the text

Perché Giulio Valerio non può essere stato l’inventore del Romanzo di Alessandro

L'articolo dimostra che la versione latina del Romanzo di Alessandro (IV secolo d. C.) non può essere all'origine delle varie versioni greche e in lingue orientali, sebbene queste siano attestate successivamente