Teaching handwritten text recognition: Can new technologies save old skills?

In the past decades, the development of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) has made considerable progress. One of the most user-friendly platforms providing access to this technology to scholars is Transkribus. Since the launch of this platform not over eight years ago, it has appealed to a steadily growing community of users. From a scholarly point of view, the platform and its technology have predominantly been put to practice in historical research and in providing access to material kept in archives. Philologists, codicologists and book historians have been slower in embracing the technology, but are now discovering its advantages. This contribution discusses how HTR technology and the Transkribus platform can be implemented in teaching, within the broader context of the evolution towards digital scholarly text editions.