Emily Kadens
@ek27.bsky.social
Law professor at Northwestern University, historian of early modern law especially English equity courts and the history of commercial practice, fan of the archives, building an AI model to automate the transcription of English secretary hand.
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Emily Kadens
@ek27.bsky.social
· Jul 30
The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton: English Secretary Hand" model is now public! app.transkribus.org/models/publi.... We have a website with sample transcriptions for different hands, information about our training conventions, and more: sites.northwestern.edu/egerton/
Good morning if baking
October 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Good morning if baking
The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton: English Secretary Hand" model is now public! app.transkribus.org/models/publi.... We have a website with sample transcriptions for different hands, information about our training conventions, and more: sites.northwestern.edu/egerton/
July 30, 2025 at 4:23 PM
The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton: English Secretary Hand" model is now public! app.transkribus.org/models/publi.... We have a website with sample transcriptions for different hands, information about our training conventions, and more: sites.northwestern.edu/egerton/
Honestly, I could not be more surprised at how well Egerton is transcribing what I find to be the worst, most unreadable hand in the equity court files. I thought we would get to maybe 8% CER with this hand. Instead we are just over 3%. Egerton reads it better than I can!
July 16, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Honestly, I could not be more surprised at how well Egerton is transcribing what I find to be the worst, most unreadable hand in the equity court files. I thought we would get to maybe 8% CER with this hand. Instead we are just over 3%. Egerton reads it better than I can!
Egerton is now ready for its public debut with a 2.89% average CER and over 1 million words. Once we have our informational website ready to go, we will submit it to @transkribus.bsky.social for publication.
July 14, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Egerton is now ready for its public debut with a 2.89% average CER and over 1 million words. Once we have our informational website ready to go, we will submit it to @transkribus.bsky.social for publication.
Just pushed the button on running the Egerton model for the last time before we make it public. We hit 1.1 million words in the training data and 126,000 in the verification set. This has been three years in the making, but it's a great model and really accurate. @transkribus.bsky.social
July 6, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Just pushed the button on running the Egerton model for the last time before we make it public. We hit 1.1 million words in the training data and 126,000 in the verification set. This has been three years in the making, but it's a great model and really accurate. @transkribus.bsky.social
Record keeping in 1592: "it is also well knowne vnto this Court that her maiesties recordes be in good saftie & not so kept as that they doe or can come vnto thandes of any her highnes Subiectes other then the officers vnto whose charge & safe custodie the same are comitted..." TNA E 112/27/241.
June 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Record keeping in 1592: "it is also well knowne vnto this Court that her maiesties recordes be in good saftie & not so kept as that they doe or can come vnto thandes of any her highnes Subiectes other then the officers vnto whose charge & safe custodie the same are comitted..." TNA E 112/27/241.
Posts about the Egerton secretary hand model can also be found @egerton.bsky.social
June 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Posts about the Egerton secretary hand model can also be found @egerton.bsky.social
Apparently the "Egerton" model really likes this hand. Less than 2% errors, and many of those errors were of punctuation or a doubled letter (Egerton's glitch). We should be making this secretary hand model public on @transkribus.bsky.social next month.
June 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Apparently the "Egerton" model really likes this hand. Less than 2% errors, and many of those errors were of punctuation or a doubled letter (Egerton's glitch). We should be making this secretary hand model public on @transkribus.bsky.social next month.
From the deposition of a Middlesex fisherman in 1595, in a suit in Exchequer involving a customary fee alleged to have been paid by Thames fisherman (TNA E 133/8/1176): "he sayeth there is greate difference betwene Stalbottes and keddles Trawlers and Trynckers ... 1/3
June 4, 2025 at 4:24 PM
From the deposition of a Middlesex fisherman in 1595, in a suit in Exchequer involving a customary fee alleged to have been paid by Thames fisherman (TNA E 133/8/1176): "he sayeth there is greate difference betwene Stalbottes and keddles Trawlers and Trynckers ... 1/3
E 133/3/381: "Charnocke said to Barker, 'what pratinge makest thou for ye Charges of a Cote, & the Apparell thow chargest me withall. ffor I coulde (sayd Charnocke) wype thy nose of all the lande thou haste' with many other Sharpe woordes wherewith the said Barker helde his peace and sayd nothinge."
May 26, 2025 at 7:09 PM
E 133/3/381: "Charnocke said to Barker, 'what pratinge makest thou for ye Charges of a Cote, & the Apparell thow chargest me withall. ffor I coulde (sayd Charnocke) wype thy nose of all the lande thou haste' with many other Sharpe woordes wherewith the said Barker helde his peace and sayd nothinge."
Thanks to Northwestern Pritzker Law for writing about the Egerton secretary hand model on @transkribus.bsky.social
news.law.northwestern.edu/decoding-the...
news.law.northwestern.edu/decoding-the...
Decoding the Past: Professor Emily Kadens uses Artificial Intelligence to bring 16th-Century Law to Life - Northwestern Pritzker School of Law News
What happens when 16th-century legal documents meet artificial intelligence? Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law’s Edna B. and Ednyfed H. Williams Memorial Professor and Vice Dean Emily Kad...
news.law.northwestern.edu
May 22, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Thanks to Northwestern Pritzker Law for writing about the Egerton secretary hand model on @transkribus.bsky.social
news.law.northwestern.edu/decoding-the...
news.law.northwestern.edu/decoding-the...
If you study the early modern history of London's streets, houses, inns, etc., the Chancery depositions (TNA C 24) are a rich source. The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton" secretary hand model found this interesting discussion of a house in the Poultrie in an interrogatory in C 24/249 box 1.
May 14, 2025 at 12:35 PM
If you study the early modern history of London's streets, houses, inns, etc., the Chancery depositions (TNA C 24) are a rich source. The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton" secretary hand model found this interesting discussion of a house in the Poultrie in an interrogatory in C 24/249 box 1.
"... the defendant dyd not strike any stroke in that affray
nor dyd se any stroke stryken by any persone ..." We're training out @transkribus.bsky.social model "Egerton" to read this hand. Should be near 90% accuracy after the next model run.
nor dyd se any stroke stryken by any persone ..." We're training out @transkribus.bsky.social model "Egerton" to read this hand. Should be near 90% accuracy after the next model run.
March 31, 2025 at 12:56 AM
"... the defendant dyd not strike any stroke in that affray
nor dyd se any stroke stryken by any persone ..." We're training out @transkribus.bsky.social model "Egerton" to read this hand. Should be near 90% accuracy after the next model run.
nor dyd se any stroke stryken by any persone ..." We're training out @transkribus.bsky.social model "Egerton" to read this hand. Should be near 90% accuracy after the next model run.
Reposted by Emily Kadens
‘Okay which one of you accidentally added Robert Cecil to the chat?’
March 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
‘Okay which one of you accidentally added Robert Cecil to the chat?’
Say I had four days and a car and wanted to see the best, most interesting, and most beautiful of any of Devonshire, Cornwall, and/or Wales, where specifically should I go?
March 20, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Say I had four days and a car and wanted to see the best, most interesting, and most beautiful of any of Devonshire, Cornwall, and/or Wales, where specifically should I go?
From the Chancery entry book C 33/91: "George Walwyn hath made oth That after he had Served a subpoena att the dwellinge howse of the said Turvyle at the plaintiffes suyte One Thomas Turvyle sonne to the said Edwarde beinge in the high waye neere to the said plaintiffes howse
March 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM
From the Chancery entry book C 33/91: "George Walwyn hath made oth That after he had Served a subpoena att the dwellinge howse of the said Turvyle at the plaintiffes suyte One Thomas Turvyle sonne to the said Edwarde beinge in the high waye neere to the said plaintiffes howse
Mansplaining in the 16th century: he saieth there was one, a woman ffrances Browne, who kept the evidences of the said Michaell Steede. & she Confessed to this deponent that she had in keeping of michaell Steedes 2 deedes & one will, ...
February 15, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Mansplaining in the 16th century: he saieth there was one, a woman ffrances Browne, who kept the evidences of the said Michaell Steede. & she Confessed to this deponent that she had in keeping of michaell Steedes 2 deedes & one will, ...
Interesting probatio pennae on the back of a Chancery deposition from 1592. Seems to be part of the oath of the court examiner.
January 15, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Interesting probatio pennae on the back of a Chancery deposition from 1592. Seems to be part of the oath of the court examiner.
Found this on the back of an interrogatory in C 24/273 from 1599. The case is about a potentially fraudulent bond caused to be drawn up by a widow in Leigh, Kent. But this looks like a street map rather than a random doodle. Any ideas?
January 12, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Found this on the back of an interrogatory in C 24/273 from 1599. The case is about a potentially fraudulent bond caused to be drawn up by a widow in Leigh, Kent. But this looks like a street map rather than a random doodle. Any ideas?
Latest "Egerton" model run has us just under 3% CER and over 800,000 words in the training set. We are aiming for a late spring public release with over 1 million words. Anyone expert in the awful STAC 5 deposition hands who wants to help correct transcriptions?
January 12, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Latest "Egerton" model run has us just under 3% CER and over 800,000 words in the training set. We are aiming for a late spring public release with over 1 million words. Anyone expert in the awful STAC 5 deposition hands who wants to help correct transcriptions?
Not a difficult script, but still, the @transkribus.bsky.social results we are getting in our "Egerton" secretary hand model are impressive.
December 19, 2024 at 8:46 PM
Not a difficult script, but still, the @transkribus.bsky.social results we are getting in our "Egerton" secretary hand model are impressive.
Want to let people know about our AI English secretary hand transcription model on Transkribus. We are nearing 1 million words, w/ and average 3% character error rate. Here is an example of what it can do on a difficult Chancery deposition hand from the 1590s. #earlymodern #digitalhumanities
November 9, 2024 at 11:34 PM
Want to let people know about our AI English secretary hand transcription model on Transkribus. We are nearing 1 million words, w/ and average 3% character error rate. Here is an example of what it can do on a difficult Chancery deposition hand from the 1590s. #earlymodern #digitalhumanities
Found in the TNA C24 English Chancery depositions from the mid-1590s, a fun probatio pennae by Nicholas Lucy. #earlymodern
December 17, 2023 at 8:12 PM
Found in the TNA C24 English Chancery depositions from the mid-1590s, a fun probatio pennae by Nicholas Lucy. #earlymodern