# spurensuche digital

Image Similarity & Provenance Marks

Provenance leaves traces on objects. Previous owners, sellers, or institutions often immortalize themselves through handwritten notes, autographs, stamps, bookplates, initials, or similar markings. These traces can provide valuable information when reconstructing the history of an object and its path into a collection. However, they first need to be identified—and this is by no means always easy: Which name belongs to this elaborate signature? How should this monogram be deciphered? Who used that bookplate?
Provenance research in libraries has compiled extensive collections of descriptions and visual documentation of provenance marks—yet many traces of former owners or other actors still remain to be decoded.

In a small workshop for the 7th International Provenance Research Day, we would like to experiment with the extent to which artificial intelligence and AI-based image similarity search can help identify provenance marks and rediscover comparable or identical traces within larger datasets.

Due to limited capacity, please register by 7 April 2025 at: lab@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

Date: 09.04.2025, 1-4:30 p.m.

Venue: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 8, 10117 Berlin (Stabi Lab: Oxford Room)

A joint event by Stabi Lab, Mensch.Maschine.Kultur, and the Provenance Research Team at the Berlin State Library.