# DISTINGUO Unveiled: Developing, Populating and Utilizing a Knowledge Base on Medieval Distinctiones

Marjorie Burghart, Svetlana Yatsyk

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## To cite this version:

Marjorie Burghart, Svetlana Yatsyk. DISTINGUO Unveiled: Developing, Populating and Utilizing a Knowledge Base on Medieval Distinctiones. Preaching and Conflict, Jul 2024, Prague (CZ), Czech Republic. halshs-05011440

HAL Id: halshs-05011440

https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05011440v1

Submitted on 29 Mar 2025

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# DISTINGUO unveiled:
developing, populating and utilizing a knowledge base on medieval *distinctiones*

Marjorie Burghart & Svetlana Yatsyk
CNRS - CIHAM UMR 5648, Lyon (France)

## Abstract

In this poster we want to present the new developments of DISTINGUO, a knowledge base on medieval *distinctiones* in the context of preaching.
This searchable *repertorium*, readily available online, offers an analysis of all the major collections of *distinctiones* and many more obscure ones, as well as
the *distinctiones* extracted from some sermon collections, with their rubrics, schematic abstracts, or even their full text.

## Introduction

The *distinctio* was a rhetorical tool, extremely widespread in preaching and other theological genres in the Middle Ages, from the late twelfth century onwards. It consists in analyzing a word or notion according to its various meanings, properties or characteristics, and in supporting each of them with biblical quotations. *Distinctiones* were heavily used by preachers: with their rhythm and rhymes, they brought structure to the sermon and facilitated the development of the sermon at any level. Like *exempla*, another key ingredient of sermons, *distinctiones* were soon gathered into collections, some of which became best-sellers.

But unlike *exempla*, those distinctions collections have received very little scholarly attention so far. The aim of DISTINGUO is to provide scholars with a *repertorium* similar to F. Tubach's for exempla or J.-B. Schneyer's for sermons: a reference resource that can be used as a stepping stone to stimulate and facilitate further research.

1. De abstinentia

**Abstract**
Duplex est abstinentia:

* detestabilis;

**Abstinentia est detestabilis:**

* ut ypocritis qui ieiunant ut laudentur;

* ut auaris qui ieiunant ut bursa impleant;

* ut gulosis qui ieiunant ut postea melius comedant.

* et laudabilis;

**Abstinentia laudabilis est quadruplex:**

* a peccato;

* a cibo;

**Abstinentia a cibo corporali commendatur multiplici suo effectu:**

* uulet ad sanitatem corporis;

* Diabolum fugat et expellit ab homine;

* carmen uincit et castigat

* a malis uerbis, nam licentia eorum impudentiam nutrit;

* a praua societate.

**Full text**

**Abstinentia est duplex, detestabilis et laudabilis.**

Detestabilis ut in hypocritis, auaris, et gulosis. Hypocrita enim abstinet, ut laudetur. Talis nimis insensatus est, quia de hoc quod uni hosti subtrahit, scilicet carni duos hostes pascit, scilicet mundum et diabolum. Diabolus enim est sicut latro qui quando cognoscit mercatores aliquid portare sociat se eis, ut eos spoliet. Sic diabolus spoliat superbos per iactantiam et ostentationem. Exemplum de Ezechia qui ostendit thesaurum suum nuncius regis Babylonis et ami sit.

Non fuit res quam non ostenderim eis (Is 9:4) etc. Ideo dicitur lob: Congregatio hypocrite sterilis, (lob 15:34) iste de bono opere quo posset habere regnum eternum

A collection (*Summa de abstinentia*) analyzed in DISTINGUO:
table of contents, abstract, and full text (screenshot)

DISTINGUO currently offers the full analysis of 37 collections of *distinctiones*, in 3 possible levels: a simple table of contents (rubrics); an abstract of each *distinctio*; the full text of each *distinctio*. Each *distinctio* is also linked to a witness that is available online, whenever possible, to facilitate verifications and access to the text. Users can also search *distinctiones* with several options.

## Using ATR to expand the corpus

Our corpus is quite large, with texts ranging from a couple of thousands of words (*Collecta ex distinctionibus Praepositini* for instance) to over a million words (*Dictionarium bovis* by Thomas of Pavia). To expand the corpus beyond what manual transcription would allow, we turned to automatic transcription (ATR).

The manuscripts we work with were created between the 13th and 15th centuries and are written in scripts such as textualis (formata, currens, libraria semiquadrata), semitextualis libraria, cursiva libraria, semihybrida libraria, bastarda, and humanistica.

Our transcription process is normalized, meaning that abbreviations are expanded at the image recognition stage rather than during post-processing. Both abbreviations by suspension and by contraction are expanded. Likewise, those using conventional signs have been resolved. The lowercase 'v' is transcribed as 'u'. For the description of the documents' layout, we follow the SegmOnto controlled vocabulary to describe the different zones of a folio, such as main zone, drop capital zone, marginalia, or numbering zone.

At the beginning of our project, only general models capable of diplomatic transcription existed. However, over the past few years, several general models capable of expanding abbreviations have emerged. We adopted the strategy of fine-tuning these models (primarily TRIDIS and “Medieval Latin and French 12th-15th c. expanded”). The model’s performance is evaluated by analyzing the Character Error Rate (CER). To achieve an accuracy of over 95%, meaning a CER <5%, we need to create a ground truth of about 6000 lines.

During the project, a dataset of 45,000 lines was created. We trained a Kraken model to determine the reading sequence of lines for the *Dictionarium bovis*. Two works have been transcribed and fully corrected: *Summa de abstinentia* by Nicolas de Biard and *Distinctiones exemplorum Veteris et Novi Testamenti* by Bindo da Siena. Additionally, automatic transcriptions of the *Summa* by Guy d'Evreux, the first part of the *Distinctiones Mauricii* by Maurice de Provins, the *Distinctiones* by Nicolas de Biard, and the *Distinctiones* by Nicolas de Gorran are in preparation.

Data acquisition

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.pdfs

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scans

Image segmentation

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zones

YALTAi

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lines

kraken

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Transcription

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kraken

and tones of
manual work

## Going beyond

Beyond the online website immediately accessible and searchable by sermon scholars, we are happy to offer resources allowing to go beyond traditional close reading.

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Network visualization of the connections between the lemmatized rubrics of 7 early collections of *distinctiones*

We are making available the ATR ground truths and models produced during the project through the HTR-United catalogue, and also sharing the TEI XML sources of our analysis of each collection, according to the FAIR principles.

Using those resources, digital humanists will be able to explore the corpus in alternative in innovative manners, automatically looking for text reuse patterns for instance, or representing the connections between the vocabulary of several collections, as shown in the figure above.

Discover the DISTINGUO resources,
freely available here:

distinguo.huma-num.fr

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agence nationale
de la recherche