Paleography Tools

Browse all available paleography tools.

Available tools

Abbreviation Density per Hundred Words Convert counted abbreviation marks into marks per hundred words and band the density by the stated rule: sparse below 5, moderate from 5 to 15, dense above 15 (university-book levels).
Acre Virgate Hide Converter Sum Domesday-style land holdings into acres using the standard four-virgate 120-acre hide (1 hide = 4 virgates = 8 oxgangs) or a custom documented hide size, since hide sizes varied locally.
Ampersand Era Mapper Check whether an ampersand style fits a century against the stated band table (classical Et ligature 1st-4th c., Caroline rounded 8th-12th, Gothic compressed 13th-15th, humanist roman 15th-21st) and list all styles the century admits.
Anglicana vs Secretary Discriminator Compare the number of observed Anglicana traits against the number of observed Secretary traits on your checklist and return the majority script with the tally margin, declaring a tie indeterminate (transparent arithmetic comparator, no contested letterform weighting).
Apothecary Weight Converter Convert apothecaries' weights on the ladder 1 pound = 12 ounces = 96 drams = 288 scruples = 5760 grains (grain fixed at exactly 0.06479891 g).
Ascender/Descender Ratio Estimator Estimate the vertical profile of a hand as mean ascender height over mean descender height, banded by the stated rule: ascender-dominant at 1.25 and above (typical of formal Gothic textualis), descender-dominant at 0.8 and below (typical of cursives), otherwise balanced.
AUC Chronicler Converter Convert years to and from ab urbe condita reckoning used by chroniclers under Varro's convention (Rome founded 753 BC; AD year + 753; no year zero), with the civil year starting 1 January.
Batarde Mix Proportion Calculator Compute the textualis-versus-cursiva proportions of a batardesque hand and classify the mix under the stated heuristic: shares within 20 percentage points of each other are balanced, otherwise the larger share dominates.
Beneventan Zone Locator Locate a century on the documented Beneventan phase table (pre-Beneventan to 7th c., earliest witnesses 8th, classic floruit 9th-11th, decline 12th-13th, residual survival 14th-16th, extinct from the 17th) and flag whether the region is within the Beneventan zone (Montecassino, southern Italy or the Dalmatian coast).
Bifolium per Quire Solver Solve the exact quire arithmetic pages = 2 x leaves and bifolia = leaves / 2 for a run of equal-sized quires.
Bifolium per Quire Solver Practice Create reproducible practice for Bifolium per Quire Solver from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Byzantine Anno Mundi Converter Convert an AD year and month into the Byzantine Anno Mundi year that begins on 1 September (AM = AD + 5509 from September, else AD + 5508) with its 15-year indiction counted from the first indiction of AM 6821 (September 312).
Capitalization Randomness Index Measure how liberally a manuscript sample capitalizes word initials: the exact fraction of whitespace tokens beginning with an uppercase letter (a rate near one reflects the medieval habit of decorating most words) plus the number of distinct capitalized initial letters.
Carbon / Iron-Gall Note Generator Generate a condition-note verdict for carbon versus iron-gall ink under the stated counting rule: three documented carbon traits (opaque black core, black in reflectography, water-smudge resistant) are counted against three documented iron-gall traits (brown edge tinge, halo bleeding, corrosion holes), and the majority side wins while a tie yields 'mixed indications'.
Caroline Minuscule Era Classifier Place a century on the documented Caroline minuscule band table: before the reform (to 7th c.), emergent reform (8th c., Alcuin from about 780), classic floruit (9th-11th), transitional to Gothic (12th) or post-Caroline (13th onward).
Carolingian Single-storey Flag Flag a Caroline-minuscule-like script profile under the stated heuristic: a hand counts as showing the single-storey Caroline a profile when its single-storey a share reaches the threshold percentage (default 80).
Catchword Presence Checker Check for a catchword by comparing the last word of a verso's closing line with the first word of the following recto after exact normalization (case-folding, accent-stripping and trimming of punctuation).
Chain Line Spacing Classifier Classify a measured chain-line spacing against your own supplied reference range (required bounds, since paper stocks vary) as below, within or above the interval with exact comparisons.
Charter Witness Ranker Rank charter witnesses by list position and classify each by a stated keyword heuristic on Latin/English title tokens with precedence royal > ecclesiastical > noble > knightly > unspecified.
Chirograph Wavy-Cut Checker Assess a cut-apart chirograph under the stated heuristic: halves whose surviving letter counts differ by no more than the tolerance count as matching when a wavy cut is visible, mismatched otherwise, and indeterminate whenever no wavy cut is visible.
Collation Formula Builder Build a collation formula from a list of per-quire leaf counts as Roman-numbered terms joined by plus signs and total the exact leaf, bifolium and page counts.
Contraction Loss Detector Measure how many scribal contraction abbreviations survive from exemplar to copy: exact percent change with the stated rating bands (no change at zero, minor under five percent dropped, moderate five to fifteen, major above fifteen, any increase is expansion).
Copperplate Shade Classifier Classify round-hand shading under the stated bands on the thick-to-thin stroke-width ratio: below 1.5 monoline, below 3 moderate_shading, and from 3 upward full_copperplate_shading.
Coptic Module Ratio Classifier Divide measured letter height by measured pen-nib width for a Coptic hand and classify the module as fine, medium or broad using YOUR supplied thresholds (required inputs, since no single scholarly convention is universal).
Correction Over Erasure Flag Flag corrections written over erased text and band the practice under the stated rule: none at 0%, incidental below 25%, recurrent 25-60%, systematic above 60% of erasures receiving a written-over correction.
Date Consensus Median Estimator Condense several proposed datings of a manuscript into a consensus by reporting their numeric median (mean of the two central values for even counts), arithmetic mean, spread, and tally.
Diplomatic Protocol Checker Check a charter text for four classic diplomatic protocol elements by keyword heuristic - invocation (in nomine / signum sanctae crucis), intitulation (ego/nos), corroboration (signum manus, robo-, confirmo-, subscribo- forms) and datation (actum/datum/data/anno) - and score completeness out of four.
Dominical Letter Finder Find the dominical letter(s) of a year from the weekday of 1 January in the proleptic Julian or Gregorian calendar; leap years carry two consecutive letters with the second taking effect after the February leap day.
Ductus Complexity Index Rater Rate script ductus complexity under the stated rule: strokes per letter with bands economical (<3), moderate (3-6) and complex (>6), plus pen lifts per letter as a secondary index.
Easter Table Entry Decoder Decode the computus row for a year into golden number and Easter Sunday date using Meeus's Gregorian algorithm or the classic Julian (Alexandrian) algorithm; Julian results are dates in the Julian calendar.
Ell Yard Regional Converter Convert cloth lengths between ells and statute yards (36 in) using documented regional ell standards - English statutory 45 in, common Flemish 27 in, Scottish 37 in (approximate; local practice varied), or a custom length.
Epact Day Moon Lookup Look up the Julian computus epact = 11 x (golden number - 1) mod 30, i.e. the conventional age in days of the mean moon on 1 January, displayed as 30 when the residue is zero.
Eschatocol Completeness Checker Score the closing protocol (eschatocol) of a charter against its four standard elements (dating clause, witness list, roboratio, sealing clause) under the stated heuristic: all four is complete, two or three is partial, fewer than two is fragmentary.
Ex-libris Inscription Extractor Extract structured fields from a bookplate or ownership inscription under the stated rules: recognise case-insensitive phrases 'ex libris', 'ex-libris', 'exlibris', 'from the library of' and 'from the books of', take everything after the earliest phrase as owner text with edge punctuation trimmed, and report the first 400-2100 integer found as the year (0 when none).
Expunging Blackout Rater Rate how heavily an entry was expunged under the stated rule: share of lines blacked out banded as untouched (0%), spot (<10%), partial (10-50%) or wholesale (>50%), with fullyBlackedOut set when every line is struck or the observer declares whole-entry erasure.
Feastday Anchor Extractor Extract the feast-day dating anchor from a charter by substring heuristic against a documented table of common sanctorale feasts with their fixed liturgical dates (or movable status), returning the earliest match in the text.
Foliation vs Pagination Detector Convert the highest written number of a codex into implied leaf and page totals under the declared numbering scheme: foliation counts each leaf once, while pagination maps page n to ceiling(n / 2) leaves so an odd final numbered page remains valid.
Folio Reference Recto-Verso Notation Normalizer (r/v) Normalize a single positive folio recto/verso notation; no foliation/pagination conversion or damaged-number inference.
Golden Number Cycle Position Place a calendar year in the 19-year Metonic computus cycle using the standard medieval key goldenNumber = (year mod 19) + 1.
Golden Number Cycle Position Practice Create reproducible practice for Golden Number Cycle Position from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Gothic Double-storey Ratio Quantify how strongly a sample leans toward the Gothic textualis double-storey a by reporting the double-to-single ratio and the double-storey share of all sampled a glyphs.
Gothic Double-storey Ratio Practice Create reproducible practice for Gothic Double-storey Ratio from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Gothic Textualis Period Band Map a calendar year onto the conventional Gothic textualis bands stated here plainly: pre-Gothic (before 1100), protogothic transitional (1100-1199), early textualis (1200-1299), mature textualis (1300-1399), late textualis (1400-1499) and post-Gothic (from 1500).
Grain Hair/Folio Mapper Map which folios of a quire show hair or flesh on their rectos under your declared nesting model (uniform rectos of one chosen skin, or alternating so each opening pairs identical skins), as exact leaf lists.
Grain Quarter Bushel Converter Convert English dry grain measures on the statutory ladder 1 quarter = 8 bushels = 32 pecks = 64 (dry) gallons.
Greek Uncial / Minuscule Checker Check which Greek book hand dominates a century on the documented band stated plainly: uncial (biblical majuscule) dominates to the eighth century, both hands coexist through the ninth-century transition to minuscule, and minuscule dominates from the tenth century onward.
Hair/Flesh Note Generator Generate the standard catalogue hair/flesh note for a leaf from which skin side faces the first page, deriving the opposite side for the verso with exact string construction.
Hand Count Cluster Variance Test whether proposed hands are plausibly distinct under the stated rule: report the population variance and coefficient of variation of the per-hand means, the smallest gap between neighbouring means divided by the pooled within-hand standard deviation, and treat gaps of at least two standard deviations as distinct hands.
Hijri-Julian Manuscript Converter Convert colophon dates between the Hijri calendar and the Julian calendar using the arithmetical (tabular) Islamic calendar with the civil epoch of Friday 16 July 622 CE (JDN 1948440); observed calendars can differ by a day.
Historiated Initial Tier Classifier Classify an initial on the standard catalogue ladder: an identifiable narrative scene is historiated, a non-narrative human or animal figure is inhabited, and foliage or other ornament without figures is decorated.
Hogshead Barrel Tun Converter Convert English wine-cask measures on the statutory ladder 1 tun = 2 pipes = 4 hogsheads = 252 wine gallons (barrel 31.5 gal, tierce 42 gal).
Humanist Minuscule Century Estimator Estimate the humanist phase for a century on the documented band table stated here plainly: before humanism (to 13th c.), protohumanist circle experiments (14th), floruit (15th), print-era standardization (16th) and legacy antiquarian hand (17th onward).
Illumination Completeness Scorer Score how much of a planned illumination programme was executed: exact percentages for initials and miniatures (a category with nothing planned counts as 100%) and an overall band at the stated cut-offs (complete 100%, largely complete 75-99%, partly executed 25-74%, barely begun below 25%).
Indiction Cycle Year Solver Solve which calendar years begin a given indiction (1-15) under a chosen documented epoch - the Greek indiction turning each 1 September from 312, the Roman papal indiction each 25 December from 312, or the Bedan indiction each 1 January from 313 - using exact modulo-15 arithmetic.
Insular Family Flag Checker Tally four documented Insular script features (insular g, insular delta-shaped d, long-descender insular s and the Tironian et) under the stated heuristic: no features means unlikely, exactly one is possible, two or more is probable Insular.
Invocatio Trinitarian Detector Classify a charter invocatio as trinitarian under the stated heuristic: word-boundary matches for an explicit Trinity term or all three Father, Son and Holy-Spirit keyword groups mark it trinitarian.
Iron-Gall Corrosion Grade Rater Rate iron-gall ink corrosion on the stated transparent rule: each of four indicators (ink loss, burn-through, halo bleeding, mechanical weakness of the sheet) is scored 0-3 by the observer, and the grade is the rounded mean with labels none/slight/moderate/severe for 0/1/2/3.
Italic Slant Degree Rater Rate the pen slant of an italic hand under the stated bands measured clockwise from vertical: under 6 degrees upright, under 12 slight_slant, under 20 chancery_italic, and 20 to 45 steep_cursive.
Kalends Medieval Date Parser Convert a Roman-style medieval date ('ante diem n kalends/nones/ides of month M') into a day of month by exact inclusive backward counting, with the Ides on the 15th of March/May/July/October and the Nones eight days earlier; leap-year Februaries use the 29-day mapping (medieval scribal practice around the bissextile varied).
Kurrent Century Classifier Classify a century on the documented German Kurrent band table stated plainly: cursive background before the 17th c., emergence (17th), baroque Kurrent (18th), nineteenth-century standard Kurrent (19th), Sütterlin era and end of school-taught Kurrent (20th, script taught from 1911) and digital-era legacy reading (21st onward).
Laid Line Density Estimator Estimate laid-line density exactly by dividing the counted lines over a measured span by that span in centimetres.
Laid Line Density Estimator Practice Create reproducible practice for Laid Line Density Estimator from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Line-Count Column Measurer Multiply counted ruled lines per column by estimated characters per line and the column count to obtain the exact per-page line total and text-block character estimate.
Line-Count Column Measurer Practice Create reproducible practice for Line-Count Column Measurer from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Long-s Ratio Calculator Count long s (ſ) and round s characters in a transcription and report the exact long-s share of all s glyphs plus its frequency per thousand characters.
Majuscule Minuscule Balance Calculator Tally Unicode uppercase versus lowercase letters in a transcription and report the majuscule share plus a stated-heuristic balance verdict: within 10 percentage points of even is balanced, otherwise the majority case dominates.
Manuscript Format Classifier Classify a codicological format from measured leaf height under the stated adjustable band convention (foliage of at least 280 mm is folio, 200-279 quarto, 130-199 octavo, below 130 small format) and report the exact width-to-height aspect ratio.
Manuscript Shelfmark Validator (library-collection-folio format) Screen explicitly declared library / collection / item shape only; institutions do not share a universal shelfmark grammar.
Margin Proportion Rater Rate measured margins against the classic codicological rule of thumb (outer about twice the inner, bottom about twice the top) with exact ratios and a stated default tolerance of 0.25 on each ratio.
Marginalia Era Classifier Place a marginal hand on the standard main-currency table (insular minuscule 7th-9th c., Caroline minuscule 9th-12th, Gothic textualis and Gothic cursive 12th-15th, humanist cursive 15th-16th, secretary 15th-17th) and optionally check it against an observed century.
Medieval Currency Denaro Converter Convert amounts in the medieval money-of-account ladder 1 lira/libra = 20 solidi = 240 denari and render the pounds-shillings-pence notation (lb/s/d).
Medieval Latin Sigla Abbreviation Expander (suspension marks) Qualified caller-reference registry: actual manuscript language, scribal context, suspension/contraction sign and independently verified expansion; ambiguous expansions not invented. Requires independently applicable source/context/date evidence; not an authoritative table, omitted predictive model, diagnosis, permission, safety or compliance determination.
Miniature Gold Frame Detector Detect a gold frame around a miniature under the stated rule: class from the count of gilded sides (0 none, 1-3 partial border, 4 full frame), with the frame only 'confirmed' when the mean gold border width also meets a threshold (default 2 mm).
Missing Leaf Gap Analyzer Compare surviving folio numbers against the expected quire total and report exactly which leaves are missing, how many, and their consecutive runs as a compact gap summary.
Nib / X-height Consistency Checker Check that repeated x-height measurements agree within tolerance under the stated rule: spread is (max-min)/mean in percent and the hand counts as consistent when spread does not exceed the tolerance (default 10%).
Nine-Final Token Resolver Resolve the 9-shaped word-final brevigraph by appending your chosen attested reading of the mark, '-us' (broad) or '-is', to the letters of the stem.
P-Loop Brevigraph Expander Expand the barred/looped -p- brevigraph by joining surrounding letters with your chosen attested reading of the sign, 'per' or 'par' (the sign itself is ambiguous; the sense is a declared enum choice).
Pen Angle Thinning Calculator Compute exact broad-nib stroke geometry for a nib of width w held at angle theta to the writing line: vertical stems take w*cos(theta), horizontal strokes w*sin(theta), and the thinning ratio is their quotient cot(theta).
Pen Angle Thinning Practice Create reproducible practice for Pen Angle Thinning Calculator from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Pricking Hole Row Counter Compare the pricking-hole counts on the top and bottom edges of a leaf with exact averages and the stated verdict bands (equal is symmetric, within two is slightly off, more is mismatched).
Punctuation Era Marker Set Identifier (punctus vs virgule) Qualified caller-reference registry: actual manuscript punctuation inventory, script/region and independent comparative dating evidence; punctuation alone does not establish era. Requires independently applicable source/context/date evidence; not an authoritative table, omitted predictive model, diagnosis, permission, safety or compliance determination.
Quire Signature Position Finder Locate a leaf inside its quire for signature placement: exact arithmetic gives the conjugate leaf, first or second half of the quire, which bifolium counting from the outermost sheet, and the leaf's running number across the manuscript.
Rag vs Wood-Pulp Era Boundary Checker Place a paper's production year against the documented fibre boundary stated plainly: rag-only before Keller's 1844 wood-pulp process, a transition to 1860, and commercially dominant wood pulp from 1861 onward.
Regnal English Year Converter Convert an English regnal year into its exact calendar span by anniversary arithmetic from each monarch's documented accession or coronation date to death or deposition (Julian calendar, modern year numbering; Henry VI covers only his first reign).
Roman Numeral Manuscript Quantity Parser (iiij style) Bounded medieval additive Roman numeral branch, final j as i, conventional subtractive groups; does not infer overbars or nonstandard multiplicative notations.
Rubric Red Initial Flag Flag rubrication and band its coverage under the stated rule: red share of all initials in percent, with bands none (0%), sporadic (<10%), frequent (10-50%) and systematic (>50%).
Ruling Type Detector (dry point vs lead vs ink) Qualified caller-reference registry: actual physical/microscopic ruling evidence and independently validated dry-point/lead/ink criteria; no image detection. Requires independently applicable source/context/date evidence; not an authoritative table, omitted predictive model, diagnosis, permission, safety or compliance determination.
Schwabacher Fraktur Note Generator Generate a dated-note-style verdict for late Gothic textura under the stated heuristic on sampled ascender forms: more than 60 percent looped ascenders leans Fraktur, under 40 percent leans Schwabacher, and anything between is mixed.
Scribe Change Detector Flag a possible change of scribe under the stated rule: each metric (line spacing, letters per line) is compared by the symmetric percent deviation |a-b|/mean(a,b)*100, and a deviation above tolerance (default 5%) on either metric flags a change.
Seal Presence Attachment Mode Classifier (pendant-applied) Map explicit seal attachment observation to pendant/applied mode, not authenticity or document date.
Secretary E-Horn Counter Count horned e glyphs (ę, the usual transliteration of the secretary-hand e with its entry horn) against plain e in a transcription and report the exact horned share plus its frequency per thousand characters.
Seleucid Era (AG) Converter Convert years to and from the Seleucid era (anno Graecorum) under either attested new-year convention: the Macedonian autumn year from October (default) or the Babylonian spring year from April; SE 1 began in autumn/spring of 312/311 BC.
Signum Cross Detector Scan a charter transcription for signum manus cross marks - plus signs and cross glyphs (+, dagger, double dagger, Latin and Jerusalem crosses) - counting them and locating the first.
Spanish Era Year Converter Convert between AD years and the Spanish Era (Aera Hispanicae) used in Iberian charters, where Era year = AD + 38 counting from the epoch of 1 January 38 BC.
Suspension Mark Type Decoder (tilde/macron/curly) Bounded abbreviation-sign notes only, no automatic manuscript transcription.
Thorn, Yogh and Wynn Counter Count Insular-derived special letters (thorn þ/Þ, yogh Ȝ/ȝ and wynn ƿ) in a transcription sample and report their combined frequency per thousand characters as exact arithmetic.
Tironian Et Frequency Counter Count the Tironian et sign (U+204A), the ampersand and standalone 'et' tokens in a transcription sample and report the Tironian et rate per thousand whitespace tokens as exact arithmetic.
Tower Troy Pound Note Generator Generate the weight notes for a mint account in the pre-1526 English Tower (moneyers') pound of 240 pennyweights = 5400 grains = 15/16 troy pound, where one sterling penny was coined from one Tower pennyweight.
Trim Loss Edge Recorder Record the exact material lost when a parchment sheet was trimmed to its present page size: total width and height reductions plus the lost area in square centimetres and as a percentage.
Trim Loss Edge Recorder Practice Create reproducible practice for Trim Loss Edge Recorder from supplied scenarios, returning validated questions and computed answers under the source tool's assumptions and limits.
Two-Column Gutter Checker Check whether two measured columns plus their gutter reproduce the full text-block width within a stated default tolerance of one millimetre and report the signed discrepancy and the exact column-width ratio.
U/V Interchange Era Checker Compare word-final '-ue' versus '-ve' spellings in a sample under the stated heuristic: more -ue endings (haue, loue) suggests pre-standardization u/v interchange, more -ve endings suggests the later positional convention, and ties are indeterminate.
Ustav / Poluustav Dater Rate the plausibility of a Cyrillic hand for a century against documented bands stated plainly: ustav attested in the 10th-14th centuries and rare later (liturgical headings and revivals), poluustav attested from the 14th to the 18th with rare earlier (12th-13th) and revival use (19th onward).
Watermark Twin Match Finder Compare measured chain-line and laid-line spacings of two sheets and declare a probable twin (same paper stock) when both signed deltas fall within the stated default tolerance of one millimetre.
Word Spacing Adoption Rater Rate an observed word-spacing convention on a fixed scale (scriptio continua 0, partial separation 50, full separation 100) and check it against the stated typical-period bands (continua to the 8th c., partial 6th-9th, full from the 8th c. onward).
Wormhole Density Rater Convert counted wormholes on a measured leaf into holes per square decimetre with exact arithmetic and rate them on the stated bands (none at zero, light under two, moderate under six, heavy from six).
Writing Block Extractor Subtract measured margins from the page dimensions to extract the exact ruled or written block size and its area in square millimetres.