Making Characters Count. A Computational Approach to Scribal Profiling in 14th-Century Middle Dutch Manuscripts from the Carthusian Monastery of Herne

TL;DR

This study employs computational stylometry and linguistic analysis to differentiate scribal hands in 14th-century Middle Dutch manuscripts, revealing patterns of scribal identity and collaboration through abbreviation and character usage.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of abbreviation density and stylometric models to refine scribal attribution in medieval manuscripts.

Findings

Abbreviation density effectively differentiates scribes.

Stylometric analysis corroborates and refines previous attributions.

Small textual features reveal scribal collaboration patterns.

Abstract

The Carthusian monastery of Herne was exceptionally prolific in producing high-quality manuscripts during the late 14th century. Although the scribes remain anonymous, previous research has distinguished thirteen different scribal hands based on paleography and codicology. In this study, we revisit this hypothesis through the lens of linguistic characteristics of the texts, using computational methods from the field of scribal profiling. Using a newly created corpus of diplomatic and HTR-based transcriptions, we analyze abbreviation practices across the Herne scribes and demonstrate that abbreviation density provides a distinctive metric for differentiating scribal hands. In combination with a stylometric bag-of-characters model with brevigraph features, this approach corroborates and refines earlier hypotheses about scribal attribution, including evidence that challenges the role of scribe $\alpha$ in Vienna, \"{O}NB, SN 65. Our results highlight the value of combining computational stylometry with traditional codicology, showing how even the smallest elements of the written system -- characters and abbreviations -- can reveal patterns of scribal identity, collaboration, and manuscript transmission.