eCodicology is the joint research project of Technical University of Darmstadt, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technlogy and the University of Trier. The main purpose of the project is the development, testing and optimization of new algorithms for the identification of macro- and micro-structural layout elements of the manuscript pages in order to enrich their metadata in XML format according to the TEI P5 standards. The former manuscript descriptions can thus be enriched automatically.

The project uses image processing and feature extraction techniques which are helpful to detect and extract various basic layout features on digitized manuscript pages. By statistical analyses, humanities scholars can gain new insights and are able to find new hidden relationships in the manuscript collection.

eCodicology exceeds the established standards for the virtual reconstruction of historical book collections, which aims at the digital reunion, the textual preparation and presentation of the material. The project also aspires the reusability of its workflow for future projects. The algorithms tested on the image scans of St. Matthias can serve as a starting point for the analysis of other manuscript collections.