This is just a brief project note:
tranScriptorium is an EU-funded (FP 7 STReP) project, which aims to “develop innovative, efficient and cost-effective solutions for the indexing, search and full transcription of historical handwritten document images, using modern, holistic Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology” (from the Web site).
The tranScriptorium project is scheduled to run from January 1, 2013 until December 31, 2015. The project consortium consists of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), the University of Innsbruck (Austria), the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (Greece), University College London (UK), the Institute for Dutch Lexicology (Netherlands), and the University London Computer Centre (UK). Targeted languages are Spanish, German, English, and Dutch; the project Web site does not state if tranScriptorium focuses on a specific period or a particular type of document.