OCR4all is good

 For a current project, it would be useful to have an electronic text of pseudo-Vincent Ferrer's De fine mundi (or Anton Sorg's 1486 edition of a German translation, to be precise).

Let me back up a bit. For every project that I've worked on since the beginning of grad school, I've wished for an electronic text of every primary and secondary source. They've rarely been available. When they've been essential, it usually required a lot of manual typing.

For modern works, ABBYY FineReader works extremely well, but it didn't produce usable results for 15/16th-century books, even with considerable fine-tuning. I looked at other options a few years ago, but they looked more like solutions for specialized digitalization centers.

Until recently. After seeing a colleague's results, I gave OCR4all another try, and it's finally giving me the electronic texts I want for a reasonable amount of effort.

The installation instructions are mostly clear. There's a learning curve and I'm far from understanding all the options, but it largely produces good enough output as is. Hardware requirements are quite modest - I'm running it on my work computer, an Intel Core i5-4590 from 2016.

There are a few things I've done to speed up the process.

1. Most of the texts I want to digitize are available as scanned images. Before I turn OCR4all loose, I do some minimal preparation work using IrfanView, a free, lightweight, all-purpose image viewer and editor: I rotate any pages that are noticeably off horizontal (OCR4all will do its own fine-tuning), and I crop out extraneous margins. I set up an AuoHotKey script so I can save the file with one key combination once I have the cropping rectangle selected.
2. Once I start up OCR4all, I can mostly let it do its preprocessing, noise removal, page segmentation and line segmentation on its own. But it's a good idea to check a few pages to make sure noise removal hasn't gotten out of control, and then to check the line segmentation of each page to make sure OCR4all hasn't skipped over anything and has chosen a rational reading order.
3. For text recognition, I select five historical Fraktur models. I wish it was clearer why I'm selecting five, and all Fraktur models rather than a mix or something else, but I'm getting good results.
4. OCR4all has a good visual editor for comparing recognized text to the page image. To speed things up, I'll zoom in the text to around 160%, or whatever makes the lines about the same length as the page image. Then I check off "Show Prediction" and "Show Confidence" and raise the Word Confidence to .95. This highlights the words I need to double-check in orange. I'll make any edits to those words and assume the rest are good enough for now.
5. After checking each page, I export a text file, then do some searching and replacing in Notepad++. Its pattern-matching abilities based on regular expressions are much better than what's available in Word. I replace tall ſ and ʒ with s and z, for example - the goal here isn't an edition, but an easily readable text. I also remove line breaks.

 And that is how I can go from a digital facsimile to a usable electronic text in less than an hour for a pamphlet, and a few hours for a longer work like De fine mundi.

How it started

How it's going Jtem/ vil wilder thier/ id est (Fürsten) werden widerwertiglich mit einander reden. Jm. 1524. jar. Vnd ein grosser adler/ id est (Keiser) desselben haupt/ vnd werden gehen auff die weitte der er den / id est (Türcken vnd das heilig land) vnd welcher den namen des sterns / id est (Bapst)hat/ derselb wirt geladen/ aber er wirt nit kumen / doch so wirt er senden den/ der den namen des visch hat/ id est (delfin/ das ist der Künig von Franckreich) vnd wirt an sich nemen der adler ein grosse samlung/ vñ der Leopardus/ id est (der Römisch Künig) auß Campo albo / vnd durch die Ritterschafft eingehen vñ machen ein haupt in der Marchia/ id est (in der Mar chia vnd eins ist in Welschen landen) vnd wirt darnach gehen wider das erdtreich/ das da seyn grund hat von verreterey/ id est (wider Welsch land vnd der Römer) vnd welcher den namen des vischs hat / der wirt an sich nemen den weg Leopardus / vñ kumen wider jn vber die lender Campaniam zwischen der grund Parmam schlösser/ id est (stet in Welschen landen) vnd wirt sich halten widerwertig / vnd da wirt dann vil blüts vergiessung durch manschlacht bey dem fluß / welcher genennet ist der arbeyt / id est (wascher fiuß) darnach wirdt derselb fluß des blůts / der von der manschlacht einkumpt/ vnd der da den gantzẽ tag billt / id est (Künig von Vngern) der wirt sterben von eisen/ vnd wirt vber jn herschen der Leopardus / darnach wirt er sterben natürlichs tods/ vñ wirt darnach frid durch dz gantz erdtrich werdẽ/ Das werd war/ AMEN.

A Pseudo-Methodius sighting

The fifteenth-century manuscript Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz, Hs I 109, from the Carthusians of Mainz, consists of four parts. A sixteenth-century addendum at the end of part 3 (fol. 109v) includes a list of around 20 books. The first two items from the list belong to the third part of the manuscript, but the rest do not.

The final line of the list begins: Item Reuelacioes methodij

The library's manuscript catalog doesn't mention Methodius, but does describe the rest of the works as "primarily theological, grammatical and medical writings, including Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff, Jakob Wimpfeling's Elegantiarum medulla and Isidoneus Germanicus, Johannes Marius Philelphus' Novum epistolarium." (I also see Johannes de Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi in the book list.)

It's always interesting to get another data point on who owned prophecies, and in what context.

A Cedar of Lebanon sighting

 Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz, Hs I 171 is a manuscript from the second half of the 15th century. The provenance is from the Carthusians of Mainz.

The text on ff. 21v-22r is identified as a "Vision de anno 1387." The title identifies it as a vision found in an old book: "Sequitur alia visio Reperta in uno antiquo libro."

The text is in fact the "Cedar of Lebanon" vision (see Robert Lerner's 1983 Powers of Prophecy for the definitive study).

The preceding text, the "Visio de anno 1454" on ff. 20r-21v, is the Revelatio I of Denis the Carthusian.

The Extract of Various Prophecies

For the booklet of excerpts from Lichtenberger and Grünpeck and other sources known variously as the Auszug etlicher Prophezeiungen, Extract of Various Prophecies, and (inaccurately) as the "Anonymous Practica"/"Anonyme Praktik," whose most thorough previous description is pp. 145-53 in Heike Talkenberger's Sintflut (1990), I have a recently published article that clears up some of the mysteries:

Jonathan Green. “The Extract of Various Prophecies: Apocalypticism and Mass Media in the Early Reformation.” Renaissance and Reformation 40.4 (2017): 15–42.

• The previously unknown source of the foreword is Simon Eyssenmann’s annual astrological prognostication for 1514 (VD16 E 4757).
• The concluding 54 lines of verse are likewise not an original compilation, but appear to be taken from a 108-line poem printed together with an astrological prognostication or calendar for 1508; see Carl Gottfried Scharold, Dr. Martin Luthers Reformation in nächster Beziehung auf das damalige Bisthum Würzburg historisch dargestellt (Würzburg, 1824), 1:64n1, xx–xxiii (appendix item vi). Fragments of both previously unknown sources appear as pastedowns in the same volume (Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek 4 Med 1284).
• The extracts from Lichtenberger are most closely connected to an edition published in 1497 by Bartholomaeus Kistler in Augsburg (ISTC il00209000/GW M18245) and another set of extracts published in 1532 (VD16 ZV 11958).
• The Dutch edition dated to 1509 (NB 26021) should be dated to around 1523.
• The decisive actor behind publication of the Extract of Various Prophecies is Hans Stainberger, bookseller of Zwickau, although his personal involvement in composition is unlikely.
• The 14 known editions of 1516-1525 make the Extract of Various Prophecies the most frequently printed prophetic work during that decade.
• The circulation of the Extract of Various Prophecies is associated with several interesting Reformation-era controversies, and illustrates the spread of apocalyptic motifs and the formation of audiences for apocalypticism in Reformation-era Germany.

I sketch out the the relationship between texts and editions as follows (this image does not appear in the published article):

A very short review: Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (1998)

McGinn, Bernard, John Joseph Collins, and Stephen J. Stein, eds. The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism. 3 vols. New York: Continuum, 1998. ISBN 978-0826412522.

9780826412522

9780826412522

9780826412522

9780826412522

I usually save short reviews for academic work that is of the highest quality or makes a substantial impact on my own work. So this review is about 20 years late, but well deserved. I came across the three-volume Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism while browsing in the university library last fall and ended up reading it from cover to cover, from cover to cover, and from cover to cover - for all three volumes, from ancient Persia to the late twentieth century.

The articles were on the whole well written, authoritative, and thoroughly documented. I thought there were only two real clunkers; the rest ranged from highly informative to truly excellent. Now matter how distant any article seemed at first, I found that almost every article was relevant to my research on early modern Germany and helped me see my work in a much broader context, while the best articles motivated me to rethink and redefine what I research and how I go about it. When I first started the research project that turned into Printing and Prophecy, I planned to look only at prophecy as a communicative act in late medieval and early modern Germany, but soon found I couldn't avoid dealing with astrology and the Reformation. Now I see that I can't avoid dealing with apocalypticism as well. The Encyclopedia of Apocalytpicism is going to be one of those reference works that stays near my desk for just about any research project.

Vanished booklets of the 1560s: a few core samples

When talking about printing, literature, or anything having to do with medieval and early modern texts, it is easy to overlook something that must not be overlooked: how much of what was once written or printed has now vanished. For practicas, annual astrological prognostic booklets, which were by nature ephemeral, we can assume that many editions have left no surviving copies, but pinning down how many or characterizing the relationship of the known to the unknown is tricky.

One source of evidence are book lists that can be compared to known editions. For practicas in the 1560s, we have two interesting sources in practica compilations, one printed in Frankfurt for the year 1565 (VD16 ZV 29072) and the other printed in Basel for 1569 (VD16 P 4544), both of which claim to reprint all the astrologers who have made prognostications for that year.

The first collection, for 1565, includes sections from the practicas of ten astrologers: Johannes Huldrich Ragor, Nikolaus Neodomus, Johannes Hebenstreit, Andreas Rosa, Christoph Statmion, Sebastian Brelochs, Gregor Fabricius, Nicolaus Winckler, Simon Heuring, and Moritz Steinmetz. Of these, nine are known from printed editions of practicas for 1565; only Ragor's is otherwise unknown. (This is an interesting list of astrologers. Six are well known practica authors, while four are sparsely attested: Ragor [otherwise attested only for 1581], Neodomus [attested only for 1565], Sebastian Brelochs [only attested for 1565 and 1568-69, in contrast to his widely published predecessor Anton Brelochs], and Moritz Steinmetz [only attested for 1565]. But the editor also omits a few astrologers with practicas for 1565, including Valentin Engelhart, Georg Holsthen, and the well-known Joachim Heller.) In comparison, VD16 records 16 practica editions from 12 authors, but lacks Johannes Ragor's.

The second collection, for 1569, includes chapters from eight astrologers: Nicolaus Winckler, Johannes Hebenstreit, Victorinus Schönfeld, Simon Heuring, Valentin Butzlin, Erasmus Reinhold, Sebastian Brelochs, and Hieronymus Wilhelm. Again, half of the authors are well known, while the other four are more obscure (Sebastian Brelochs again, Valentin Butzlin, Erasmus Rehinhold, and Hieronymus Wilhelm). The editor again omitted some well-known astrologers with known practicas for 1569, including Georg Caesius, Andreas Rosa, and Christoph Statmion. The included chapters are drawn from four practicas that are unattested in VD16.

So to sum up: The collection for 1565 tells us that VD16 misses 1 out of 13 authors (7.7%). The collection for 1569 tells us that VD16 misses 4 out of 11 authors (36.4%). For both years, VD16 records 23 editions from 14 authors. The two collections suggest that VD16 misses at least 4 out of 18 authors (22.2%). This isn't an answer to the question of missing editions, but it does give us some interesting core samples to think about.

A prognostication for Valentine's Day 1469 from the desk of Hartmann Schedel

Bettina Wagner's work on letters, notes, and other miscellanea from Hartmann Schedel has uncovered quite a few interesting things, including this cataclysmic prognostication for 1469 copied onto a loose leaf. It's an interesting text that I haven't seen before. An attempt at a transcription and translation follow. Punctuation has been added and capitalization has been altered for sense and abbreviations have been resolved silently.

Anno M^o cccc^o lxviiii^o quartadecima die mensis Januraii incipietur delusio mundi, evacuatio cleri, derisio christianitatis, deposit[i]o potentiarum scilicet Imperatoris et regum. Insuper quartadecima die mensis februarii circa[?] meridiem eclipsabitur sol et quasi omnino emittet formam sue dispositionis. Et significat iiii^or mala. Primum quod deus movebit celum et terram in suo empisperio quasi mundum subverteret. Secundum quod virtutes superiorum movebuntur scilicet ordo contra[?] ordinem. Tercium de magna et in audita sangwinis effusione qualis numquam fuit a mundi origine timendum est. Quartum fames magna ita quod maritus non curabit uxorem nec uxor maritum nec pater et mater prolem curabit, quia quasi unanimiter desperabunt. Post hec sequitur pestis in audita de uno in alterum precedens et pauci effugient. Sed qui superstites manebunt bene habebunt et in cunctis prosperabuntur.

Dicitur quod hanc prenostica Scola Parisiensium fecit que missa dicitur magistro Johanne Gerstman.

On the fourteenth day of January 1469 will begin the deception of the world, the purging of the clergy, the mockery of Christendom, and the cessation of power, namely of the emperor and of kings. And then on the fourteenth day of February around noon, the sun will be eclipsed and almost entirely expel the form of its disposition. [NB. Is the thought that the sun will lose its light and weaken, or shine out its entire force at once?] And this signifies four evils. First, that God will move heaven and earth in their orbits ["hemispheres"] as if to overturn the world. Second, that the powers of the superior [planets] will be moved, namely one order against the other. Third, one must fear a great and unprecedented outpouring of blood the likes of which have never been from the beginning of the world. Fourth, so great a famine that a husband will not provide for his wife, nor a wife for her husband, neither father and mother for them children, because almost all will be united in despair. After these things, an unheard of plague will follow, advancing from one side to the other, and few will escape it. But what survivors will remain will be well and prosper in all things.

It is said that the school of Paris made this prognostication, which is said to have been sent to Master Johannes Gerstman.

The text, an amalgamation of astrology and catastrophic prophecies, bears some resemblance to the "Toledo Letter" and to the prognostication of "Meister Theobertus von England" printed around 1470 both in their construction and in their attributions to foreign astrologers. According to the NASA catalog of solar eclipses, there was a solar eclipse on 13 January 1469, which approximately matches one of the dates in the prognostication, but that eclipse was not visible in Europe. The eclipse of 9 July 1469 would have been much more dramatic. The closing note that anyone who survives will experience marvelous things is a motif that appears many times, particularly in the lead up to 1588.