From Manuscript Evidence to Analytical Models: Interpreting Letterforms with the CyPaT Toolkit

This study examines the transition from the de visu study of Cyrillic manuscripts to their analysis within a digital and analytical framework, a transformation that continues to pose primarily methodological challenges, as it requires the adaptation of both material evidence and descriptive practices. The CyPaT (Cyrillic Paleographic Toolkit) software addresses these challenges by providing analytical tools and descriptive models for the structural analysis and typological classification of letterforms according to their fundamental graphic components. One of the current priorities in its development lies in formulating a coherent and interoperable descriptive language for Slavic Cyrillic palaeography, essential for enabling meaningful and efficient comparative analysis across different scribes, scriptoria, and chronological contexts. In this perspective, a series of case studies will demonstrate how CyPaT can be applied to the examination of specific scribal hands, thereby refining attributional precision and expanding the analytical and comparative potential of palaeographic research.