Artificial intelligence uncovers lost work by Spanish playwright Lope de Vega

Published January 31,2023

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Researchers say they’ve found a misplaced work by Spanish playwright Lope de Vega with the assistance of synthetic intelligence.

“Digital tools are powerful allies for the researcher of Spanish Golden Age theater. Without them, it would have been much more difficult-or even impossible-for ‘La Francesa Laura’ to be studied as a potential work by Lope de Vega,” begins a paper revealed on Tuesday that outlines the invention.

La Francesa Laura was one of many 85,000 manuscripts saved within the National Library of Spain. Its writer was nameless, however proof now suggests the comedy was written by certainly one of Spain’s most influential writers.

Academics and librarians have been clueless till the textual content was run via an AI-powered textual content recognition device referred to as Transkribus. The manuscript was certainly one of 1,300 Golden Age performs to have been digitally transcribed in a matter of hours.

But the transcript nonetheless contained some errors. The lecturers engaged within the analysis, Alvaro Cuellar and German Vega, later ran it via the ETSO platform, which they developed and educated on Spanish Golden Age literature knowledge.

ETSO, which suggests authorship based mostly on the datasets, categorized the comedy La Francesa Laura as a piece by Lope de Vega. None of the opposite items of theater was attributed to the author.

After that surprising sign, the lecturers used conventional evaluation to substantiate whether or not the AI was proper. All the proof instructed that Lope de Vega certainly wrote the play.

Cuellar and Vega estimate he wrote it round 1630, roughly 5 years earlier than he died. The National Library of Spain bought it from a duke in 1882.

In a press launch, the National Library of Spain describes it as a “remarkable play, with a dramatic force to be expected from a mature Lope de Vega” and highlights the work’s protection of the power of girls.

Lope de Vega is taken into account Spain’s second most vital writer, solely after Miguel de Cervantes. Besides elevating Spanish theater, he’s identified for his prolific writing. Overall, he revealed round 3,000 sonnets, three novels and round 500 performs.