Reconstruction of degraded medieval music notation in Cambridge libraries with multispectral imaging and advanced data representation methods

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• Anna Breger (University of Klagenfurt)
• Wednesday 28 January 2026, 15:30-16:30
• CMS computer room, Faculty of Music (11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP).

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Abstract

In this talk we discuss the potential of combining multi-spectral imaging (MSI) with non-standard projection methods to visualize the acquired data and to reconstruct illegible bits of medieval music notation. Our examples include manuscripts and fragments that suffer from different kinds of degradations rendering parts of the notation illegible. Such degradations may happen due to chemical or physical damage, for example from iron-gall acidity or from deliberate erasure. When appropriate for the problem at hand, MSI has the power to envision the invisible, but always comes with the choice of post-processing for visualization. We compare the images acquired from different MSI systems and traditional versus our advanced post-processing, and demonstrate the success on medieval manuscripts and fragments with musical notation from Oxbridge libraries.

Biography

Dr Anna Breger has been an Assistant Research Professor at the Cambridge Image Analysis group at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a Research Associate at the Gonville & Caius college, and will now continue her path at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria) as Senior Scientist and Head of Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration. Her background is in Applied Mathematics and Early Music, which is combined in her recent research project “AI meets cultural heritage: Non-invasive imaging and machine learning techniques for the reconstruction of degraded historical sheet music“, where she collaborates with the Cultural Heritage Imaging laboratory (CHIL) at the University Library, the Fitzwilliam museum and Gonville & Caius College library. The research project aims to recover early musical sources that suffer from degradations and combines advanced imaging with new methodologies for visualization to reconstruct lost notation in collaboration with musicologists. 

Zoom link

https://zoom.us/j/99433440421?pwd=ZWxCQXFZclRtbjNXa0s2K1Q2REVPZz09 (Meeting ID: 994 3344 0421; Passcode: 714277)

This talk is part of the CMS seminar series in the Faculty of Music series.

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• CMS computer room, Faculty of Music (11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP)
• CMS seminar series in the Faculty of Music
• Martin's interesting talks

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