publications | Sarah A. Lang

2027

Two-tier Computational Humanities: A Labour History of Undervalued Contributions in DH

Sarah Lang

In The De Gruyter Handbook of Feminist Digital Scholarship, Berlin/Boston, 2027

Forthcoming

Abs Bib

Knowledge work is shaped by hierarchies of visibility and recognition. Digital Humanities (DH) and the recent emergence of Computational Humanities (CH) as a prominent subfield are no exception. This article takes a labour history approach to computational humanities to examine how unequal forms of recognition have shaped the field. Building on earlier reflections on toxic masculinity and disciplinary identity in computational humanities (Lang 2020), it situates contemporary tensions surrounding CH within a longer history of the devaluation of particular forms of knowledge work. By positioning and historicising current debates within broader discussions ranging from the history of women in computing to invisible labour, care work, and AI data work and the invisible technician discourse, the article argues that what may appear as a recent disciplinary development is in fact the latest chapter in a much longer history of unequal valuation.
@incollection{Lang2027_TwoTierCH_Feminisms, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Two-tier Computational Humanities: A Labour History of Undervalued Contributions in DH}, booktitle = {The De Gruyter Handbook of Feminist Digital Scholarship}, editor = {Cong-Huyen, Anne and Knight, Kim}, year = {2027}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, note = {Forthcoming}, location = {Berlin/Boston}, }

2026

Review of Atalanta fugiens. Herausgegeben und übersetzt von Simon Brandl (Episteme 39, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2025)

Sarah Lang

Renaissance Quarterly, 2026

forthcoming

@article{Lang2026brandl,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Review of Atalanta fugiens. Herausgegeben und übersetzt von Simon Brandl (Episteme 39, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2025)},
  journal = {Renaissance Quarterly},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {79},
  number = {3},
  pages = {},
  note = {forthcoming},
  url = {https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/loi/rq}
}

Review of Maximilian Gamer, Die Polygraphia des Johannes Trithemius nach der handschriftlichen Fassung: Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Mittellateinische Studien und Texte 56/1,Leiden: Brill 2022, 2 vols.)

Sarah Lang

Early Science and Medicine, 2026

forthcoming

Bib

@article{Lang2026gamer,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Review of Maximilian Gamer, Die Polygraphia des Johannes Trithemius nach der handschriftlichen Fassung: Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Mittellateinische Studien und Texte 56/1,Leiden: Brill 2022, 2 vols.)},
  journal = {Early Science and Medicine},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {31},
  number = {2},
  pages = {},
  note = {forthcoming},
  url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/esm-overview.xml?tab_body=container-135910-item-135916&contents=journaltoc}
}

Zwischen Experimental und Computational History of Science: Digitales Experimentieren an alchemischen Prozessvorschriften

Sarah Lang

In Veröffentlichungen des Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, 2026

Abs Bib Code

While alchemical recipe collections have not previously been the direct subject of digital text analysis, this study combines approaches from Experimental and Computational History of Science to assess both the general applicability of digital methods to alchemical experimental texts and, more specifically, their potential to identify intratextual breaks within the Processus Universalis recipe group. It assesses the use of textual stemmatology, digital text collation, stylometry, topic modelling, word clouds, and manual thematic annotation, with particular emphasis on tracing text reuse and intertextuality through stemmatological tools and Longest Common Substring Matching. The results show that digital methods currently allow the research question to be addressed primarily at the intertextual level, whereas the detection of intratextual breaks remains beyond reach.
@incollection{Lang2026processusAlt, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Zwischen {Experimental} und {Computational History of Science}: Digitales Experimentieren an alchemischen Prozessvorschriften}, booktitle = {Veröffentlichungen des Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt}, volume = {101}, pages = {69--85}, year = {2026}, }
Confabulated Transliterations? Managing the Lure of Plausibility in LLM-Detected Arabic Terms in an Early Modern Lexicon

Sarah Lang, Jonas Müller-Laackmann, Hazem Lashen, and 1 more author

In Critical Approaches to Automated Text Recognition, 2026

Forthcoming

Abs Bib

This article examines the problem of confabulated transliterations in the context of large language models (LLMs) used for automated text recognition (ATR) tasks. Focusing on a digital humanities case study, we analyse an early 17th-century Latin-German alchemical dictionary that also contains multilingual entries, including Arabic-derived terms. Our aim was to use LLMs in an OCR post-correction workflow to identify these Arabic terms, which may have been creatively transliterated into early modern Latin. The transcription was only partially clean, further complicating the task with the potential presence of OCR noise. Positioned between post-correction and multilingual retrieval, this use case highlights both the potential and the limitations of LLMs in historical multilingual settings. In particular, we explore the lure of plausibility and the difficulty of verifying LLM-generated outputs, especially when dealing with under-resourced or especially ambiguous languages such as Arabic. The article reflects on existing strategies for managing such challenges while demonstrating how LLMs can mislead through confident yet inaccurate suggestions. We argue for a cautious, critically informed approach to LLM use in the humanities and offer an illustrative example of some of the problems that emerge in historically and linguistically complex scenarios.
@incollection{LangEtAl2026Confabulated, author = {Lang, Sarah and M{\"u}ller-Laackmann, Jonas and Lashen, Hazem and Mahootian, Farzad}, title = {Confabulated Transliterations? Managing the Lure of Plausibility in LLM-Detected Arabic Terms in an Early Modern Lexicon}, booktitle = {Critical Approaches to Automated Text Recognition}, editor = {Terras, Melissa and Gooding, Paul and Ames, Sarah and Nockels, Joe}, publisher = {Facet Publishing}, address = {London}, year = {2026}, note = {Forthcoming}, }
Dataset Audits for Mitigating Data Gaps

Sarah Lang and Elena Suárez Cronauer

Computational Humanities Research, 2026

Accepted, forthcoming

Abs Bib

This article proposes dataset audits as a method for identifying and contextualising data gaps in data-driven research. Despite increasing recognition of the decisive role datasets play in shaping data analysis and model performance, computational research continues to privilege model development over critical data work. In response, we advocate for a shift towards a data-centric approach informed by the principles of data-centric AI, feminist data criticism and critical data studies. Datasets, as constructed artefacts shaped by historical sources, their availability and canonisation, research and digitisation priorities, aswell as assumptions during dataset design, are not neutral. To make these conditions visible and enable responsible data reuse, we introduce the dataset audit: a three-part method combining dataset description, optional enrichment, and quantitative probing. Focusing on the gender data gap (or, more precisely, the underrepresentation of women), we demonstrate the utility of this approach through a case study of early Romantic letter networks. Using semi-automated gender attribution via authority records such as the Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND), we produce a quantitative estimate of this gap while reflecting critically on the classificatory limitations involved. Guided by the principle of strategic essentialism, we contend that provisional forms of modelling can support critique and action, despite their limitations, even as the field moves toward more inclusive representations of gender. By making absences and biases within inherited datasets explicit, dataset audits create opportunities for more rigorous, critical, and inclusive scholarship. We argue that such audits should become a standard component of data reuse workflows, positioning data work not as secondary to computational approaches, but as their critical foundation.
@article{LangSuarezCronauer2026, author = {Lang, Sarah and Su{\'a}rez Cronauer, Elena}, title = {Dataset Audits for Mitigating Data Gaps}, journal = {Computational Humanities Research}, year = {2026}, note = {Accepted, forthcoming}, }
Beyond Data Feminism: Towards Ethical Data Work in the (Digital) Humanities

Sarah Lang and Elena Suárez Cronauer

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften, 2026

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften / Working Papers, 4

Abs DOI Bib PDF

With the proliferation of accessible machine learning tools, there is a pressing need for ethical frameworks within Digital Humanities. Although traditional source criticism is well established, Digital Humanities require a digital source criticism that considers both the historical sources themselves and the data creation process. Often misunderstood as solely gender-focused, Data Feminism provides such a toolkit for addressing bias and ethics. This working paper discusses how these principles originally focused on data science can be adapted to everyday Digital Humanities practice. It provides both theoretical grounding and practical examples, including a case study from our own work, demonstrating the relevance and application of Data Feminist principles for Digital Humanities.
@article{LangSuarezCronauer2026_BeyondDataFeminism, author = {Lang, Sarah and Suárez Cronauer, Elena}, title = {Beyond Data Feminism: Towards Ethical Data Work in the (Digital) Humanities}, year = {2026}, journal = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften}, note = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften / Working Papers, 4}, doi = {10.17175/wp_2026}, url = {https://zfdg.de/wp_2026}, }
A Discipline, Divided: On the Digital Humanities and Ideologies of Knowledge Work

Tessa Gengnagel and Sarah Lang

In DH2026 Book of Abstracts, 2026

Abs Bib

Debates about the digital humanities (DH) have long centred on a perceived "tension at the heart" of the field. Whether framed in terms of neoliberalism ("the dark side of DH"), the hack vs. yack debate, or more recent concerns about generative AI, corporate influence, sustainability, and global inequalities, these debates share an underlying political and socio-economic dimension. This paper argues that such tensions are rooted in implicit ideological assumptions that shape the forms of knowledge produced within DH. We examine this through two historical micro-studies spanning the emergence of DH in the 1960s to its most recent transformations in the 2020s. The first investigates precursors of DH in socialist East Germany during the 1960s and 1970s. The second situates the rise of Computational Humanities Research (CHR) in the late 2010s and early 2020s through the lens of feminized labour. Combining perspectives from the history of knowledge with feminist scholarship on DH, the paper offers a comparative perspective on how ideological commitments have shaped both the institutional development of DH and the knowledge practices it continues to produce.
@inproceedings{GengnagelLang2026, author = {Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah}, title = {A Discipline, Divided: On the Digital Humanities and Ideologies of Knowledge Work}, booktitle = {DH2026 Book of Abstracts}, year = {2026}, }
Mediating Alchemical Language across Terminologies and Cultures in Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae: A Data-Driven Study of Arabic Terms

Sarah Lang, Farzad Mahootian, and Hazem Lashen

Ambix, 2026

Abs DOI Bib

From the sixteenth century onwards, reference works emerged as means to transmit technical specialist knowledge to wider audiences. Authors, practitioners, and readers of early modern alchemy and chymistry had to navigate a terminological landscape that drew on Latin, European vernacular languages, and loanwords from languages such as Arabic. Martin Ruland the Younger’s Lexicon Alchemiae (1612) occupies a central position in the early modern efforts to organise alchemical knowledge through lexicography. Emerging from the Paracelsian tradition yet extending beyond it, the work combines Latin entries with vernacular glosses and incorporates terminology drawn from a wide range of intellectual traditions. Approaching Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae as a reference book, this article investigates how it mediates terminology across linguistic and cultural boundaries, with particular attention to Arabic-derived terms. Drawing on a digital edition, the study combines computational analysis and close reading to examine the structure and contextual use of these terms within the dictionary through selected case studies, such as entries relating to alcohol. The resulting dataset offers new insights into the construction of the lexicon and provides a foundation for further research on Arabic terminology and intercultural knowledge transmission in early modern alchemy.
@article{LangMahootianLashen2026, author = {Lang, Sarah and Mahootian, Farzad and Lashen, Hazem}, title = {Mediating Alchemical Language across Terminologies and Cultures in Ruland's Lexicon Alchemiae: A Data-Driven Study of Arabic Terms}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2026}, volume = {74}, doi = {10.1080/00026980.2026.2697142} }
Contextual Word Embeddings for Paracelsian Lexicography: Tangled Terminologies and Their Origins in Ruland’s Alchemical Dictionary

Vojtěch Kaše and Sarah Lang

Ambix, 2026

Abs DOI Bib

Martin Ruland the Younger’s Lexicon Alchemiae (1612) is one of the most influential alchemical dictionaries of the early modern period, yet its sources and compilation methods remain poorly understood. This study applies computational approaches to investigate the vocabulary underlying Ruland’s lexicon and to identify potential textual influences. Using a TEI-XML encoded version of the Lexicon Alchemiae, a standard data format for encoding textual data in the digital humanities, we extract its headwords and compare them against large-scale digital corpora of Latin literature, including the Early Modern Latin Alchemical Prints (EMLAP) dataset and the broader GreLa database. By combining frequency-based lexical comparison with contextual word embeddings generated through a Latin BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model, the analysis traces both the distribution and semantic behaviour of terms across earlier alchemical and scientific texts. The article is accompanied by an interactive web application allowing readers to explore additional case studies. Our analysis indicates that Ruland drew not only on earlier Paracelsian word lists, but also on large-scale contemporary compilations such as Andreas Libavius’s Alchemia (1597), suggesting that the Lexicon Alchemiae should be understood within a broader movement to systematise and professionalise alchemical knowledge in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
@article{KaseLang2026Ambix, author = {Ka{\v{s}}e, Vojt{\v{e}}ch and Lang, Sarah}, title = {Contextual Word Embeddings for Paracelsian Lexicography: Tangled Terminologies and Their Origins in Ruland's Alchemical Dictionary}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2026}, volume = {74}, doi = {10.1080/00026980.2026.2692190} }
Introduction: Computational Approaches to the Histories of Alchemy and Chemistry

Farzad Mahootian, Sarah Lang, and Guillermo Restrepo

Ambix, 2026

Abs Bib

The promise of computational methods opens new epistemic horizons. Yet, as we discuss in this introduction to the special issue on computational approaches to the histories of alchemy and chemistry, it also brings new epistemic responsibilities. We situate this work within a broader digital and computational history and in relation to earlier traditions of quantitative history as well as to developments in digital humanities and computational humanities. We distinguish between digital, computational, algorithmic, and AI-driven approaches and clarify methodological and epistemological concerns that keep the historian firmly in the loop. Claims about computational methods often claim to enable entirely new modes of inquiry. Yet on their own, such claims can also obscure the limitations and conditions under which these methods operate. This introduction therefore explores both the opportunities and the constraints of computational approaches that more celebratory accounts sometimes overlook. It introduces the individual contributions to the special issue and concludes with a call for responsibility in the adoption of computational methods. We argue for making the histories of alchemy and chemistry more critical, global, and reflexive, while remaining attentive to the assumptions, limitations, and implications of the computational tools we employ.
@article{MahootianLangRestrepo2026, author = {Mahootian, Farzad and Lang, Sarah and Restrepo, Guillermo}, title = {Introduction: Computational Approaches to the Histories of Alchemy and Chemistry}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2026}, volume = {74}, }
Epilogue: A Computational Turn? Digital and Computational History of Science, Knowledge and Technology

Sarah Lang

Ambix, 2026

Abs Bib

With digital and computational methods becoming more visible both in scholarly and everyday contexts, it is timely to ask whether a distinct field of digital and computational history of science, knowledge, and technology can meaningfully be said to exist. This epilogue to the special issue on computational approaches to the history of alchemy and chemistry addresses this question, arguing that such an overarching field does not yet exist. To fulfill its programmatic promises, a digital and computational history of science, knowledge, and technology must focus on conceptual clarity regarding its disciplinary position. If digital and computational approaches are to contribute meaningfully to the history of science and knowledge, they must support efforts to produce more global and inclusive historiographies rather than reproducing existing biases in available datasets and algorithms. Indeed, one of the most important tasks for the future may be the creation of datasets for under-resourced subfields and historical questions. Thus, this paper argues not only for a commitment to diversity in the subjects, cultures, languages, periods, and forms of knowledge considered: Only through employing a plurality of methods can a computational history of science, knowledge, and technology adequately reflect the diversity of knowledges represented within the broader field.
@article{Lang2026Epilogue, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Epilogue: A Computational Turn? Digital and Computational History of Science, Knowledge and Technology}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2026}, volume = {74}, }
(Doing) Computational History: On the Role of Data Work in Computational Approaches

Sarah Lang

Histories, 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Computational methods have become increasingly prominent within the historical sciences, generating significant enthusiasm among some scholars. Yet their practical demands, epistemic limits, and ethical implications are less often critically examined than praised. This article explores what it means to do computational history today, arguing that it is not primarily defined by algorithms but by datasets. It is methodologically specific, resource-intensive, selective in scope, labour-heavy, and dependent on pre-digitised sources, specialised infrastructure, and interdisciplinary collaboration. These dependencies limit the scope of research questions and can produce narrow outcomes despite substantial effort, lending some validity to the concern over whether the field yields sufficient historiographical return for the labour invested. Corpus construction and data work lie at the epistemic core of computational history. These often undervalued tasks are not merely technical precursors to analysis, but interpretive and epistemic acts. Data are shaped by digitisation politics, historical bias, and institutional power. They shape the questions asked, the answers produced, and the legitimacy of findings. Recognising and valuing data work is essential, both to embed critical perspectives into computational humanities and to counteract the privileging of certain forms of labour over others. Due to the association of quantification with rigour and scholarly prowess, algorithmic work receives more credit, creating a two-tier system in this division of labour in which those who develop algorithms are elevated above those who curate data, despite their symbiotic interdependence. Computational history, when done well, requires deep engagement with our sources, be they historical or data. For computational history to stabilise as a meaningful discipline, it must prioritise building better datasets over pursuing increasingly complex algorithms on an unstable basis of data.
@article{Lang2026DoingComputationalHistory, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {(Doing) Computational History: On the Role of Data Work in Computational Approaches}, journal = {Histories}, volume = {6}, number = {2}, pages = {26}, year = {2026}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/histories6020026}, doi = {10.3390/histories6020026}, keywords = {computational history; digital humanities; computational humanities; data work; knowledge work; corpus criticism; data ethics}, }
Ways of making digital editions of historical recipes and experimental texts: The Making and Knowing Project

Sarah Lang

RIDE, 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The Making and Knowing Project is an educational and research project that has employed citizen science to produce a digital critical edition of the 16th-century manuscript BnF Ms. Fr. 640, along with accompanying educational resources. Situated within a historiographical turn centered around materiality and practical making, the Making and Knowing Project, led by Pamela Smith, explores the tacit knowledge of early modern artisans and practitioners. A major component involves the recreation of historical recipes in educational laboratory settings, documented in the form of essays. The other central component is the digital critical edition of the anonymous French technical tract, BnF Ms. Fr. 640. The first version of the edition and website was completed during the initial funding phase by 2020. Further funding has supported continued development of the edition and related outputs, such as a teaching companion and the digital scholarly editing tool Edition Crafter. Making and Knowing is a flagship project in historical recipe research and in the application of experimental methods in the history of science and knowledge.
@article{Lang2026MakingKnowing_RIDE, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Ways of making digital editions of historical recipes and experimental texts: The Making and Knowing Project}, journal = {RIDE}, number = {21}, year = {2026}, url = {https://ride.i-d-e.de/issue-21/makingandknowing/}, doi = {10.18716/ride.a.21.4} }
Critical Concerns for Using LLMs in the (Computational) Humanities and Beyond

Sarah Lang

In Understanding Science with Large Language Models?, 2026

Abs Bib PDF

This chapter maps ethical and epistemic risks associated with LLMs, including opaque and biased training data, “open-washing,” exploitative data work, environmental costs, and threats posed by hallucinations and paper mills. It critiques explainable AI as insufficient and foregrounds dataset documentation and auditing as more meaningful approaches to addressing structural bias. Finally, it advocates for frameworks grounded in care and solidarity and emphasises the need for stronger institutional requirements to promote more ethical AI practices.
@incollection{Lang2026LLM_criticalHPSS, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Critical Concerns for Using LLMs in the (Computational) Humanities and Beyond}, booktitle = {Understanding Science with Large Language Models?}, editor = {Simons, Arno and Wüthrich, Adrian and Zichert, Michael and Graßhoff, Gerd}, publisher = {transcript}, address = {Bielefeld}, pages = {33--48}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7994-6/understanding-science-with-large-language-models/?number=978-3-8394-4752-9}, }
The Dark Sides of DH Revisited: From Utopia to Reality

Matthias Arnold, Alíz Horváth, Sarah Lang, and 2 more authors

In DHd2026 Book of Abstracts, 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This panel takes up the concept of the "dark sides of DH," which emerged as a disciplinary discourse about ten years ago (cf. Chun et al. 2016). However, we now adopt this once specific concept as a lens through which to examine current challenges facing the field. At the same time, we see these concerns not only as important problems, but also as opportunities and new frontiers. They can therefore be reframed as the bright sides of DH, since we, as a field, are in a position to take positive and proactive action in response. After approximately 45 minutes of discussion, we will open the floor to the audience to encourage dialogue within the community about how we can best tackle these issues, together leaning into the bright-side potentials of our field.
@inproceedings{ArnoldEtAl2026_DarkSidesDH, author = {Arnold, Matthias and Horv{\'a}th, Al{\'i}z and Lang, Sarah and M{\"u}ller-Laackman, Jonas and Roeder, Torsten}, title = {The Dark Sides of DH Revisited: From Utopia to Reality}, booktitle = {DHd2026 Book of Abstracts}, editor = {Schwandt, Silke and Viehhauser, Gabriel and Andrews, Tara and Wallnig, Thomas and Nava, Beatrice and Helling, Patrick}, year = {2026}, pages = {113--115}, publisher = {Zenodo}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.18696194}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18696194}, }

2025

Quantifying the Environmental Footprint of Curating Datasets with LLMs

Sarah Lang, Wishyut Pitawanik, Pascal Belouin, and 4 more authors

2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This study evaluates the environmental trade-offs of using large language models to curate cross-collection oral-history datasets in the Commoning Oral Histories of Knowledge (CORAL) project. Manual screening of 2,606 interviews was benchmarked against a workflow that tested four instruction-tuned LLMs and two prompt designs. Environmental impact was approximated using token-based inputs to EcoLogits, although implementing such assessments remains non-trivial. Ultimately, we conclude that the environmental impact of our project’s use case could be considered moderate compared to common academic activities such as traveling to conferences. However, such impacts should be monitored closely, as they may vary significantly across different research setups and are likely to scale with larger datasets and broader adoption of LLMs in the field. Finally, the paper urges sufficiency-oriented practices and transparent carbon reporting in Computational Humanities research.
@misc{LangEtAl2025EnvironmentalFootprint, author = {Lang, Sarah and Pitawanik, Wishyut and Belouin, Pascal and Sevink, Emma and Olszynko-Gryn, Jesse and Freeborn, Alfred and Benson, Etienne}, title = {Quantifying the Environmental Footprint of Curating Datasets with LLMs}, year = {2025}, publisher = {Zenodo}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.17902822}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17902822}, }
Towards a Data-Driven History of Lexicography: Two Alchemical Dictionaries in TEI-XML

Sarah Lang

Journal of Open Humanities Data, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Martin Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae, in its 1612 edition, and Sommerhoff’s German-Latin dictionary (1701) in TEI-XML format provide valuable resources for understanding the cryptic language of alchemy, characterized by its use of codenames, or Decknamen. Alchemical terminology, often allegorical and poetic, arose as a shared vocabulary for laboratory practices before the advent of modern analytical chemistry. Lacking precise measurements, chymists relied on these terms to describe sensory experiences and chemical processes, forming a language that, while obscure to outsiders, enabled communication within their community. Together, the two dictionaries contain some 20,000 entries in Latin and German.
@article{Lang2025JOHD, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Towards a Data-Driven History of Lexicography: Two Alchemical Dictionaries in TEI-XML}, journal = {Journal of Open Humanities Data}, volume = {11}, number = {20}, pages = {1--6}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.5334/johd.303}, url = {https://openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/articles/10.5334/johd.303}, keywords = {Text Encoding Initiativel, exicography, alchemy, chymistry, Martin Ruland the Younger, Johann Christoph Sommerhoff} }
Fine-Tuning Machine Learning with Historical Data: An Alchemical Object Detection Dataset for Early Modern Scientific Illustrations

Sarah Lang

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper introduces a dataset designed to improve object detection for laboratory equipment in historical handbooks. Derived from digitized sources at the Herzog August Bibliothek, the dataset includes pixel-level annotations of laboratory apparatus like cucurbitae, ampullae, and furnaces and allows researchers to study how chymical knowledge was transmitted visually. Adapting an Iconclass-based taxonomy revealed discrepancies between theoretical classifications and practical image annotation, as some alchemical vessels appear nearly identical but were labeled differently according to their functions by early modern authors, which complicates annotation for models that focus on visuality rather than concepts. This underscores that historical data requires tailored computational approaches as training data significantly shapes how machines interpret historical materials.
@article{Lang2025ZfdG, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Fine-Tuning Machine Learning with Historical Data: An Alchemical Object Detection Dataset for Early Modern Scientific Illustrations}, journal = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften}, volume = {10}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.17175/2025_002}, url = {https://zfdg.de/2025_002}, }
Documenting Datasets as a Tool for Change

Sarah Lang

In Digital Humanities 2025: Book of Abstracts, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper argues that comprehensive dataset documentation could be a foundational yet undervalued practice in the Digital Humanities, linking technical standards with critical concerns such as data ethics, decolonisation, inclusivity, explainability, and reproducibility. Building on initiatives such as FAIR, CARE, Data Feminism, and Datasheets for Datasets, it proposes documentation as a practical means of improving transparency, enabling responsible data reuse, and strengthening both the ethical and scholarly quality of digital humanities research.
@inproceedings{Lang2025DocumentingDatasets, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Documenting Datasets as a Tool for Change}, booktitle = {Digital Humanities 2025: Book of Abstracts}, editor = {del Rio Riande, Gimena and Portela, Manuel and Alves, Daniel and Vieira Paulino, Joana}, pages = {885--887}, address = {Lisbon}, year = {2025}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/18393402}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.18393402}, }
Embedded in the Labyrinth: Investigating Latin Word Senses through Transformer-Based Contextual Embeddings and Attention

Vojtěch Kaše, Sarah Lang, and Petr Pavlas

In Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference 2025, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper explores how transformer-based models can enhance historical keyword-in-context studies through automatic word sense disambiguation (WSD). Using the Latin term labyrinthus as a case study, we analyze its contextual meanings across time and genre within the GreLa corpus. A Large language model provides preliminary sense labels, which we use to evaluate 64 embedding variants—contextual, attention-based, and co-occurrence-based—derived from XLM-R and Latin BERT. Our results show that combining embedding types yields the best performance. We also illustrate how attention-based embeddings capture meaningful diachronic patterns, offering promising directions for future research on semantic change and metaphor in historical texts.
@inproceedings{KaseLangPavlas2025, author = {Ka{\v{s}}e, Vojt{\v{e}}ch and Lang, Sarah and Pavlas, Petr}, title = {Embedded in the Labyrinth: Investigating Latin Word Senses through Transformer-Based Contextual Embeddings and Attention}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference 2025}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.63744/FuaAvdPMdtwW}, url = {https://anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0003/embedded-in-labyrinth-investigating-latin-word/}, keywords = {labyrinth, keyword-in-context, computational Latin philology, contextual word embeddings, automatic word sense disambiguation, word sense induction, semantic change detection, metaphor detection} }

Review of The Alchemical Laboratory in Visual and Written Sources, by Ivo Purš and Vladimír Karpenko

Sarah Lang

2025

DOI Bib

@review{Lang2025ReviewPursKarpenko,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Review of The Alchemical Laboratory in Visual and Written Sources, by Ivo Pur{\v{s}} and Vladim{\'i}r Karpenko},
  journal = {Early Science and Medicine},
  volume = {30},
  number = {2--3},
  pages = {313--316},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1163/15733823-20251352},
  url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/30/2-3/article-p313_16.xml}
}

eScriptorium Meets LLMs: Moderne KI-Systeme im Kontext der Volltexterschließung

Larissa Will, Jan Kamlah, Thomas Schmidt, and 2 more authors

In Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum 2025: Book of Abstracts, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This workshop explores full-text recognition and transcription using the eScriptorium platform, with a particular focus on recent advances in artificial intelligence. It introduces the integration of modern transformer-based architectures, especially Conformer models, into the Kraken OCR engine, demonstrating how these approaches improve text recognition by combining the strengths of convolutional neural networks and transformers to capture both local and contextual features. The workshop also examines the use of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to enhance OCR output through error correction, quality assurance, and the extraction of relevant information from recognised texts.
@inproceedings{WillEtAl2025, author = {Will, Larissa and Kamlah, Jan and Schmidt, Thomas and Lang, Sarah and Huff, Dorothee}, title = {eScriptorium Meets LLMs: Moderne KI-Systeme im Kontext der Volltexterschlie{\ss}ung}, booktitle = {Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum 2025: Book of Abstracts}, pages = {40--43}, year = {2025}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/14943148}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.14943148}, keywords = {Large Language Models, OCR, HTR, eScriptorium, Transformer} }

2024

Project Overhaul Und Refactoring Der Digitalen Edition Der ’Urfehdebücher Der Stadt Basel’ Mithilfe Von GPT-4 Und LLM

Christopher Pollin, Martina Scholger, Elisabeth Steiner, and 3 more authors

In DHd 2024 Quo Vadis DH, 2024

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This study examines the use of Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically GPT-4, in the context of the Digital Humanities through the refactoring and overhaul of the Urfehdebücher der Stadt Basel (UFBAS) project. GPT-4 supported multiple stages of the redevelopment process, including data modelling, transformation, visualisation, and software development. The project involved optimising TEI XML encoding, category systems and SKOS vocabularies, ontologies, RDF representations, web development, and data visualisations to improve usability, efficiency, and data quality. By documenting the methods, results, and practical experiences of this overhaul, the paper assesses the potential of LLMs and generative AI to support the development and maintenance of digital scholarly editions in the humanities.
@inproceedings{pollin2024dhd, title = {Project Overhaul Und Refactoring Der Digitalen Edition Der 'Urfehdebücher Der Stadt Basel' Mithilfe Von GPT-4 Und LLM}, author = {Pollin, Christopher and Scholger, Martina and Steiner, Elisabeth and Lang, Sarah and Galka, Selina and Schiller-Stoff, Sebastian}, year = {2024}, booktitle = {DHd 2024 Quo Vadis DH}, conference = {DHd2024, Passau, Deutschland, 26.02.2024-01.03.2024}, publisher = {Zenodo}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/10698240}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.10698240}, keywords = {Large Language Models} }
Defining Chymistry Through Insults? Michael Maier’s Accusations of Alchemical Fraud in the Entrepreneurial Marketplace

Sarah Lang

Daphnis, 2024

Abs DOI Bib

This article investigates Michael Maier’s (1569–1622) strategic use of invectives in his self-fashioning as an expert in the marketplace of entrepreneurial alchemy. Maier’s insults not only represent performances of expertise but also defend aurum potabile as a medical strategy. Building upon the adage that “the best defense is a good offense”, this study explores how chymists utilized the pervasive notion of alchemical fraud to their advantage. To that end, it examines Maier’s works Coelidonia (1609), De Circulo Physico Quadrato (1616), Jocus Severus (1617), and Examen Fucorum Pseudo-Chymicorum (1617) as well as his English friend Francis Anthony’s Apologia (1616), to which he contributed material.
@article{Lang2024Daphnis, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Defining Chymistry Through Insults? Michael Maier's Accusations of Alchemical Fraud in the Entrepreneurial Marketplace}, journal = {Daphnis}, volume = {52}, number = {2}, pages = {235--262}, year = {2024}, url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/daph/52/2/article-p235_5.xml}, doi = {10.1163/18796583-05202006}, keywords = {Michael Maier (1569–1622); alchemy; early modern science; fraud; potable gold; invectives} }
Sources of Alchemical Cryptography

Sarah Lang, Sergei Zotov, and Megan Piorko

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2024), 2024

Abs DOI Bib

This paper presents an initial overview of cryptographic sources relating to alchemy, an area that remains largely unexplored. Alchemists and chymists frequently encrypted short passages relating to recipes and experiments, obscured content using exotic foreign languages or custom shorthand, and created unique symbol codes. A survey of manuscripts reveals the diversity of sources in over 100 instances of ciphering in alchemical contexts, where ciphers were only one of several methods traditionally used to maintain secrecy. It serves as a starting point for further research, demonstrating the wealth of archival material related to alchemical cryptography – a goldmine yet untapped.
@inproceedings{LangZotovPiorko2024sourcesAlchCrypto, title = {Sources of Alchemical Cryptography}, author = {Lang, Sarah and Zotov, Sergei and Piorko, Megan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2024)}, year = {2024}, publisher = {Tartu University Library}, doi = {10.58009/aere-perennius0105}, url = {https://dspace.ut.ee/items/2d947b3a-6246-4934-8d4e-02fb056c7992}, keywords = {alchemy, history of cryptography, alchemical ciphers, history of science, chymistry} }
Imago et error. Decrypting the Allegorical Images of Michael Maier’s Viatorium (1618)

Sarah Lang

In Michael Maier und die Formen (al)chemischen Wissens um 1600, 2024

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This essay interprets the images in chymist Michael Maier’s (1568–1622) Viatorium (1618) as didactical devices, rather than emblematic riddles with a purely ornamental function. This interpretation places them in a different context than Maier’s paratextual admonitions to maintain the alchemical vows of secrecy, as presented in texts located in the front matter, such as the dedicatory epistle, the praefatio ad lectores, and the tractatus divisio. The essay further argues that each of the images’ didactic purpose within the Viatorium is to engage readers in a deep meditation on a chymical error or common misunderstanding Maier is trying to clear up. Most of the allegorical narratives corresponding to the images are set up in a twofold structure: The first layer offers a literal interpretation of the story behind the image, revealing the error therein. The second layer connects this story’s error to the chemical subject of the chapter in which it is located, relating it to one of the seven metals.
@incollection{Lang2024ImagoEtError, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Imago et error. Decrypting the Allegorical Images of Michael Maier's Viatorium (1618)}, booktitle = {Michael Maier und die Formen (al)chemischen Wissens um 1600}, editor = {Wels, Volkhard and Brandl, Simon}, publisher = {Harrassowitz}, address = {Wiesbaden}, pages = {239--256}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.13173/9783447121453}, keywords = {Viatorium (1618), alchemy, chemical interpretation, emblem, allegory, mythoalchemy, Michael Maier} }
DH, wir müssen reden! Eine Konversation über das Scheitern in den Digital Humanities

Ulrike Wuttke, Dario Kampkaspar, Jonas Müller-Laackman Sarah Lang, and 1 more author

BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis, 2024

Abs DOI Bib PDF

A DH project that “fails” is usually seen as having wasted time and money, the two most valuable resources of the modern world. But when and how does a project really “fail” – and does a negative result really constitute overall failure? The authors posed these questions in a panel session at the conference “Dhd 2023”. A definite answer could not be found – but it was realised that there is a lot to discuss and to do to create a positive error culture.
@article{Lang2024Scheitern, author = {Wuttke, Ulrike and Kampkaspar, Dario and Lang, Jonas Müller-Laackman Sarah and Karcher, Stefan}, title = {DH, wir m{\"u}ssen reden! Eine Konversation {\"u}ber das Scheitern in den Digital Humanities}, journal = {BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis}, pages = {84--89}, volume = {48}, number = {1}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.1515/bfp-2024-0004}, url = {https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/bfp-2024-0004}, }

2023

Toward a Computational Historiography of Alchemy: Challenges and Obstacles of Object Detection for Historical Illustrations of Mining, Metallurgy, and Distillation in 16th–17th Century Print

Sarah A. Lang, Bernhard Liebl, and Manuel Burghardt

In Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference 2023 (CHR 2023), 2023

Abs Bib PDF

This study explores the use of modern computer vision methods for object detection in historical images extracted from 16th–17th century printed books containing illustrations of distillation, mining, metallurgy, and alchemical apparatus. We found that the transfer of knowledge from contemporary photographic data to historical etchings proves less effective than anticipated, revealing limitations in current methods like visual feature descriptors, pixel segmentation, representation learning, and object detection with YOLOv8. These findings highlight the stylistic disparities between modern images and early print illustrations, suggesting new research directions for historical image analysis.
@inproceedings{LangLieblBurghardt2023, author = {Lang, Sarah A. and Liebl, Bernhard and Burghardt, Manuel}, title = {Toward a Computational Historiography of Alchemy: Challenges and Obstacles of Object Detection for Historical Illustrations of Mining, Metallurgy, and Distillation in 16th--17th Century Print}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference 2023 (CHR 2023)}, editor = {{\v{S}}e{\c{l}}a, Artjoms and Jannidis, Fotis and Romanowska, Iza}, year = {2023}, publisher = {CEUR-WS}, address = {Aachen}, pages = {29--48}, keywords = {computer vision, object detection, alchemy, chymistry, early-modern print, metallurgy, mining, distillation, annotation} }
Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics

2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The alchemical laboratory was a seminal site for the birth of modern science. Before their institutionalization, chymical laboratories were typically makeshift and multipurpose, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach to fully comprehend their role in the evolution of experimental knowledge-making. The international symposium “Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics,” which took place in Vienna and Oberstockstall in February 2020, offered a comprehensive exploration of this topic, addressing themes like alchemical experiments as courtly spectacles, the materiality of courtly chymical practice, and the day-to-day operations within early chymical laboratories. The early modern alchemical laboratory is discernible through both textual and material evidence, indicating its significance among practitioners, scholars, aristocrats, and royalty. For instance, the 16th-century laboratory excavated at Oberstockstall Manor (Lower Austria), along with aristocratic correspondence and alchemical medals from the Coin Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, illuminates the cultural resonance of chymical practices of the era. These relics not only reveal the more technical aspects of alchemy but also its role as an exclusive form of entertainment in elite social circles.
@book{Lang2023AlchemicalLaboratories, editor = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics}, publisher = {Grazer Universit{\"a}tsverlag}, address = {Graz}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.25364/9783903374041}, url = {https://doi.org/10.25364/9783903374041}, }
Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics. An Introduction

Sarah Lang

In Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The alchemical laboratory is one of the most important birthplaces of modern science. Yet it remains a relatively understudied topic. This is due to the scarce historical record of these places which – before laboratories became institutionalized – tended to be make-shift and multi-purpose spaces. Thus an interdisciplinary approach is needed to approach this topic central to the history of experimental knowledge production. This article serves as an introduction to the proceedings of the international symposium ‘Alchemical Laboratories. Texts, practices, material relics’ held in February 2020 in Vienna and Oberstockstall. It gives an overview of not only the articles contained in this volume but also contextualizes them in current research discourses relevant to alchemical and chymical laboratories, mainly the experimental history of science and the archaeology of alchemy but not reduced to them.
@incollection{Lang2023Introduction, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics. An Introduction}, booktitle = {Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics}, editor = {Lang, Sarah}, publisher = {Grazer Universitätsverlag}, address = {Graz}, pages = {15--40}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.25364/97839033740412}, }
Zur Transkription von Alchemica mithilfe der Transkribus-Software. Zu Handschriften, Drucken und dem NOSCEMUS GM 6 Modell

Michael Fröstl, Stefan Zathammer, and Sarah Lang

In Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Thanks to digitization initiatives like VD17 (Union Catalogue of Books Printed in German-Speaking Countries in the 17th Century) many alchemical texts have become available as digital facsimiles. Editing those texts is an important desideratum in the historiography of alchemy and chemistry. The Transkribus software offers promising features for the automated transcription of historical text based on image data. Researchers can freely access a number of pre-trained models, for instance the NOSCEMUS GM 6, a high-performing model for Latin print of the 15th to 19th centuries. In the Innsbruck NOSCEMUS project, about 80 alchemical texts have been machine-transcribed using the aforementioned model. They are available as open access publications and can be reused freely by the research community.
@incollection{FroestlZathammerLang2023, author = {Fr{\"o}stl, Michael and Zathammer, Stefan and Lang, Sarah}, title = {Zur Transkription von Alchemica mithilfe der Transkribus-Software. Zu Handschriften, Drucken und dem {{NOSCEMUS}} {{GM}} 6 Modell}, booktitle = {Alchemische Labore. Texte, Praktiken und materielle Hinterlassenschaften / Alchemical Laboratories: Texts, Practices, Material Relics}, editor = {Lang, Sarah}, publisher = {Grazer Universit{\"a}tsverlag}, address = {Graz}, pages = {363--378}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.25364/978390337404119}, }
Furnace and Fugue. A multimedia edition of Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens

Sarah Lang

RIDE, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Furnace and Fugue is a digital edition of Michael Maier’s (1568–1622) opus magnum, the emblem book Atalanta fugiens (1618a) in which Latin and German texts are paired with images and musical fugues in an enigmatic way to engage users of the book in deep meditation on alchemical subjects. The digital edition of the text itself, including an English translation based on a 17th century manuscript, is accompanied by a number of scholarly essays. A main feature is the MEI player, which includes a piano roll visualisation that allows users to experience the musicological makeup of Atalanta fugiens even without a background in music theory. The edition is a beautifully designed “haute couture” edition, intended to provide an example for the future of digital scholarly publishing. The project has used digital editing effectively to enable the multimedia experience that Michael Maier had likely envisioned for Atalanta fugiens, but which was previously inaccessible to most users of the book.
@article{Lang2023FurnaceFugue_RIDE, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Furnace and Fugue. A multimedia edition of Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens}, journal = {RIDE}, number = {18}, year = {2023}, url = {https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-18/furnace-fugue/}, doi = {10.18716/ride.a.18.4}, }
Deciphering the Hermeticae Philosophiae Medulla: Textual Cultures of Alchemical Secrecy

Megan Piorko, Sarah Lang, and Richard Bean

Ambix, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This article presents the decryption, historical analysis, and alchemical interpretation of an alchemical cipher found in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee (British Library MS Sloane 1902). The cipher is an early example of a Bellaso/Della Porta/Vigenère type, a strong encryption method which was historically deemed indecipherable. The essay explores the medical and alchemical context for the manuscript into which the cipher was copied and provides the transcription, plaintext solution (in Latin), and English translation of the encrypted text. Further, it interprets the enciphered text through the lens of alchemical practice and provides evidence for the dissemination of this cipher as part of a larger alchemical knowledge network.
@article{Lang2023Deciphering, author = {Piorko, Megan and Lang, Sarah and Bean, Richard}, title = {Deciphering the Hermeticae Philosophiae Medulla: Textual Cultures of Alchemical Secrecy}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2023}, volume = {70}, number = {2}, pages = {150--183}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2201744}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2201744}, keywords = {alchemy, cipher}, }
Digital Scholarly Editions of Alchemical Texts as Tools for Interpretation

Sarah Lang

In Digitale Edition in Österreich, 2023

Abs Bib PDF

Digital Scholarly Editions commonly provide annotations and visualization tools for Named Entities, dates or basic quantitative text analysis using methods based on bags of words and word counting. This paper argues that such methods are not enough to provide meaningful insight into texts from the history of science and alchemy especially, using two case studies from the alchemical texts by iatrochymist Michael Maier (1568-1622). A custom-made method for the interpretation of alchemical terms is presented which relies on the polyvalent semantic annotation of relevant yet ambiguous alchemical Decknamen and the analysis of their semantic contexts using a digital knowledge organization system.
@incollection{Lang2023DigitalScholarly, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Digital Scholarly Editions of Alchemical Texts as Tools for Interpretation}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {Digitale Edition in Österreich}, editor = {Klug, Helmut and Bleier, Roman}, series = {Schriften des Instituts für Dokumentologie und Editorik (SIDE) 16}, publisher = {Books on Demand}, address = {Norderstedt}, pages = {111--132}, url = {https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/70451}, }

Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF, 2017–2019)

Sarah Lang and Ursula Gärtner

In Digitale Edition in Österreich, 2023

Abs Bib PDF

@inproceedings{LangGartner2023GRaF,
  author = {Lang, Sarah and Gärtner, Ursula},
  title = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF, 2017–2019)},
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {Digitale Edition in Österreich},
  editor = {Klug, Helmut and Bleier, Roman},
  series = {Schriften des Instituts für Dokumentologie und Editorik (SIDE) 16},
  publisher = {Books on Demand},
  address = {Norderstedt},
  pages = {190--192},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin},
  url = {https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/70469},
}

The cipher of Emperor Rudolf II’s “Alchemical Hand Bell”

Richard Bean, Corinna Gannon, and Sarah Lang

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2023, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

We examine a cipher found inscribed in the so-called “Alchemical Hand Bell” from the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf II. We provide insight into the bell’s history, a correction for an existing published transcription, perform statistical analysis of the ciphertext, and look at possible encryption methods and plaintext languages. Given the analysis, we examine the possibilities of digraphic and polyphonic ciphers and give a brief overview of how these were used in the historical context.

@inproceedings{handbell2023,
  author = {Bean, Richard and Gannon, Corinna and Lang, Sarah},
  title = {The cipher of Emperor Rudolf II’s “Alchemical Hand Bell”},
  year = {2023},
  editor = {Dahlke, Carola and Göggerle, Matthias},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2023},
  series = {Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 195},
  pages = {13--17},
  doi = {10.3384/ecp195690},
  url = {https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/histocrypt/article/view/690},
  keywords = {Rudolf II, alchemy, handbell, statistical analysis, digraphic cipher, polyphonic cipher, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Voynich}
}

Situating ciphers among alchemical techniques of secrecy

Sarah Lang

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2023, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper offers a contextual framework for the historical analysis of alchemical ciphers. It argues that they differ from other ciphers due to their unique context: the alchemical tradition embodies a performative culture of secrecy, which employs a variety of techniques to achieve this performance. This paper contends that the distinction between ‘secret as content’ versus ‘secrecy as practice’ presents a useful framework for understanding alchemical rhetorics of secrecy and their relationship to alchemical cryptography. Additionally, it demonstrates how these principles can be applied in interpreting several examples.
@inproceedings{Lang2023histocrypt, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Situating ciphers among alchemical techniques of secrecy}, year = {2023}, editor = {Dahlke, Carola and Göggerle, Matthias}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2023}, series = {Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 195}, pages = {93--104}, url = {https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/histocrypt/article/view/698}, doi = {10.3384/ecp195698}, }

Seven metals, ringed with four magical inscriptions: what other secrets does the ‘Alchemical Hand Bell’ hold?

Richard Bean, Corinna Gannon, and Sarah Lang

Jun 2023

Abs Bib

@online{handbell2023conversation,
  author = {Bean, Richard and Gannon, Corinna and Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Seven metals, ringed with four magical inscriptions: what other secrets does the ‘Alchemical Hand Bell’ hold?},
  year = {2023},
  month = jun,
  day = {7},
  journal = {The Conversation},
  url = {https://theconversation.com/seven-metals-ringed-with-four-magical-inscriptions-what-other-secrets-does-the-alchemical-hand-bell-hold-204367}
}

Data Feminism as a Challenge for Digital Humanities?

Luise Borek, Elena Suárez Cronauer, Pauline Junginger, and 3 more authors

Jul 2023

English version

Abs Bib

Data Feminism, following the work of Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein (2020), offers an intersectional framework for critically examining the power structures embedded in data collection, modelling, curation, analysis, and presentation. While these approaches provide important impulses for Digital Humanities (DH), they have so far remained only marginally represented in the German-speaking DH community, particularly with regard to their practical implementation in everyday research projects. This contribution presents the outcomes of a workshop that sought to develop an initial set of recommendations for integrating data feminist perspectives into DH practice.
@online{Borek2023a, author = {Borek, Luise and Cronauer, Elena Su{\'a}rez and Junginger, Pauline and Lang, Sarah and Lemke, Karoline and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism as a Challenge for Digital Humanities?}, year = {2023}, month = jul, day = {1}, journal = {LaTeX Ninja Blog}, url = {https://latex-ninja.com/2023/07/01/data-feminism-as-a-challenge-for-digital-humanities/}, note = {English version} }
Data Feminism als Herausforderung für die Digital Humanities?

Luise Borek, Elena Suárez Cronauer, Pauline Junginger, and 3 more authors

Jul 2023

Abs Bib

Data Feminism, following the work of Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein (2020), offers an intersectional framework for critically examining the power structures embedded in data collection, modelling, curation, analysis, and presentation. While these approaches provide important impulses for Digital Humanities (DH), they have so far remained only marginally represented in the German-speaking DH community, particularly with regard to their practical implementation in everyday research projects. This contribution presents the outcomes of a workshop that sought to develop an initial set of recommendations for integrating data feminist perspectives into DH practice.
@online{Borek2023b, author = {Borek, Luise and Cronauer, Elena Su{\'a}rez and Junginger, Pauline and Lang, Sarah and Lemke, Karoline and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism als Herausforderung f{\"u}r die Digital Humanities?}, year = {2023}, month = jul, day = {1}, journal = {DHd Blog}, url = {https://dhd-blog.org/?p=19571} }
Herausforderung, Lesson Learned oder Chance? Der Zusammenhang zwischen Kulturen des Scheiterns und Open-Bewegungen in den Digital Humanities

Ulrike Wuttke, Dario Kampkaspar, Jonas Müller-Laackman, and 4 more authors

In DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This panel focuses on the question of how failure is addressed in the Digital Humanities. Why is there so little discussion of failure in DH project contexts, and even less formal publication on the subject, despite the obvious importance of learning from mistakes as much as from successes? Repeating the same mistakes wastes both time and resources, and without a healthy culture of acknowledging failure, the practical implementation of Open Science principles in the humanities remains difficult, as researchers are often reluctant to make their processes and shortcomings transparent. The panellists discuss, from multiple perspectives, the limitations of current approaches to failure in the Digital Humanities and explore ways of fostering a more constructive and open culture of learning from failure.
@inproceedings{scheitern2023, author = {Wuttke, Ulrike and Kampkaspar, Dario and Müller-Laackman, Jonas and Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah and Karcher, Stefan and Schrade, Torsten}, title = {Herausforderung, Lesson Learned oder Chance? Der Zusammenhang zwischen Kulturen des Scheiterns und Open-Bewegungen in den Digital Humanities}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, pages = {72--74}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715544}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.7715544}, }
Data Feminism in DH

Sarah Lang, Luise Borek, and Nora Probst

In DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Data Feminism seeks to critically examine the predominantly male-dominated narratives of the Digital Humanities from the perspective of intersectional feminism. It is often observed that the white, cis-male, and hegemonic biases embedded in archives and source materials are reproduced in the data derived from them and in the digital technologies built upon those data. Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein’s Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020) has become a key reference for the Digital Humanities, yet it is primarily addressed to a data science audience and offers relatively few immediately applicable strategies for DH practice, creating a barrier to entry. This workshop pursues two objectives. First, in the spirit of a hackathon, participants will discuss and experiment with Data Feminism approaches using their own datasets. Second, they will collaboratively develop a "How to Data Feminism in DH" manifesto that introduces key concepts, recommends essential reading, and outlines the field’s foundational principles.
@inproceedings{dhd-workshop-datafem2023, author = {Lang, Sarah and Borek, Luise and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism in DH}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715422}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.7715422}, }
Open DH? Mapping Blind Spots

Tessa Gengnagel, Sarah Lang, Nora Probst, and 6 more authors

In DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands “Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum” (DHd 2023), Mar 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Harkening back to the "big tent" metaphor (e.g. Terras 2013) which characterized debates about the inclusivity of DH ten years ago, the topic of ’openness’ in the conference theme invites associations of ’blue skies’, endless horizons, and the sense that everything is possible – in terms of participation, dissemination and objects of observation. This notion is complicated by several issues that discourses of cultural criticism have identified in the Digital Humanities in recent years (although they are not exclusive to the field): Among them monolingualism (Fiormonte 2021), a heritage of colonialism (Risam 2019) and gender imbalance (Gao et al. 2022, 330), to name but a few. Supposing that there is something to be learned from shifting the gaze towards these "borderlands" (Earhart 2018) of attention, the panel will interrogate the theme of the conference and probe the boundaries of its ’openness’ against this backdrop of socio-economic, political and infrastructural inequalities.
@inproceedings{Gengnagel2023b, author = {Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah and Probst, Nora and Gerber, Anja and Dang, Sarah-Mai and Duan, Tinghui and Grallert, Till and Keck, Jana and Nyhan, Julianne}, title = {Open DH? Mapping Blind Spots}, booktitle = {DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands “Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum” (DHd 2023)}, year = {2023}, address = {Trier, Luxemburg}, month = mar, day = {10}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7715329}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715329}, notes = {Blogpost report: https://dhd-blog.org/?p=19235}, }
Exploring the borderlands. A revolutionary potential for DH

Luise Borek, Sarah Lang, Quinn Dombrowski, and 5 more authors

In DH 2023: Collaboration as Opportunity, 2023

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The Digital Humanities often present themselves as a transformative field, yet they continue to inherit many of the structures and assumptions of the traditional humanities from which they emerged. This panel examines where the field’s revolutionary potential remains unrealised by focusing on its "borderlands" (Earhart 2018): spaces in which established practices and power structures can be critically reassessed. Bringing together international perspectives informed by critical DH scholarship, the panel addresses persistent blind spots, including monolingualism, colonial legacies, gender inequality, and structural precarity. Contributions explore these issues from multiple perspectives: the biases and absences embedded in cultural heritage collections; the tensions between DH’s emancipatory self-image and the institutional realities of academic labour; the challenges of balancing activism with community needs in the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) initiative; the limits of decolonisation and the unfulfilled promises of DH’s transformative agenda; and the potential of feminist and decolonial design practices to foster more democratic, inclusive, and globally participatory forms of digital scholarship. Together, the panel asks what genuine collaboration and revolution might mean for the future of the Digital Humanities.
@inproceedings{dh2023borderlands, author = {Borek, Luise and Lang, Sarah and Dombrowski, Quinn and Fiormonte, Domenico and Metilli, Danielle and Murray, Padmini Ray and Terras, Melissa and Roy, Dibyadyuti}, title = {Exploring the borderlands. A revolutionary potential for DH}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DH 2023: Collaboration as Opportunity}, editor = {Baillot, Anne and Tasovac, Toma and Scholger, Walter and Vogeler, Georg}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, pages = {442--445}, url = {https://zenodo.org/record/7961822}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7961822}, }

2022

Vom ‘Wissen in Buchform’ zum formalen Wissensmodell. Digitale Aufbereitung wissenschaftshistorischer Drucke am Beispiel der Alchemica Michael Maiers

Sarah Lang

In Wissen und Buchgestalt (Tagungsband zu ‘Wissen in Buchgestalt’ 30.09.2019 – 02.10.2019), 2022

Abs Bib PDF

Early modern printed books are repositories of knowledge. Large-scale digitisation initiatives such as VD17 have made vast numbers of these sources available in digital form, raising the question of how the knowledge they contain can be systematically extracted and modelled. This paper presents a methodology for the formalisation, modelling, and extraction of knowledge from digitised alchemical texts, using the works of Michael Maier as a case study. In particular, it examines how knowledge, which is only partly explicit in the textual signs of a printed page and largely relies on implicit meanings, can be extracted with reasonable reliability. It also considers the relationship between textual strings and the conceptual entities they denote, asking how this connection can be represented within a digital environment. A particular focus lies on integrating established scholarly knowledge resources, such as contemporary lexica, into Linked Open Data frameworks. The paper discusses the extent to which such analogue resources can be incorporated into digital knowledge models despite their original structure not being designed for computational representation. Finally, it demonstrates how formally modelled knowledge, once extracted from its original book form, enables new forms of computational analysis and reuse.
@inproceedings{Lang2022wissen, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Vom `Wissen in Buchform' zum formalen Wissensmodell. Digitale Aufbereitung wissenschaftshistorischer Drucke am Beispiel der Alchemica Michael Maiers}, booktitle = {Wissen und Buchgestalt (Tagungsband zu `Wissen in Buchgestalt' 30.09.2019 -- 02.10.2019)}, year = {2022}, editor = {Hegel, Philipp and Krewet, Michael}, pages = {227--248}, publisher = {Harrassowitz}, address = {Wiesbaden}, url = {https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Wissen_und_Buchgestalt/titel_7010.ahtml}, }

Matteo Soranzo. Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524) and Renaissance Alchemy: A Critical Edition of “Chrysopoeia” and Other Alchemical Poems, with an Introduction, English Translation and Commentary

Sarah Lang

Isis, 2022

DOI Bib PDF

@article{Lang2022SoranzoIsis,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Matteo Soranzo. Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441--1524) and Renaissance Alchemy: A Critical Edition of “Chrysopoeia” and Other Alchemical Poems, with an Introduction, English Translation and Commentary},
  journal = {Isis},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {113},
  number = {4},
  pages = {866--867},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1086/722444},
  doi = {10.1086/722444},
}

Book review: LaTeX Beginner’s Guide, second edition, by Stefan Kottwitz

Sarah Lang

The Communications of the TeX Users Group TUGboat, 2022

Bib PDF

@article{Lang2022LatexReview,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Book review: LaTeX Beginner’s Guide, second edition, by Stefan Kottwitz},
  journal = {The Communications of the TeX Users Group TUGboat},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {43},
  number = {1},
  url = {https://tug.org/books/reviews/tb133reviews-kottwitz2.html},
}

A Machine Reasoning Algorithm for the Digital Analysis of Alchemical Language and its Decknamen

Sarah Lang

Ambix, 2022

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Alchemical language has been addressed in several lexicographical studies, historically and recently. This paper discusses the current state of the field and proposes a digital distant-reading approach to the issue of decoding alchemical Decknamen. This paper presents an algorithm for the digital analysis of alchemical language using the corpus of printed works by Michael Maier (1568–1622). Alchemical language was used as a medium for negotiating authority, inclusion, and exclusion in alchemical and chymical communities and also as a tool for social and scholarly knowledge-making. This paper addresses the historical problem of understanding early modern alchemical language by computational analysis. Previous studies have applied close reading methodologies to decode Decknamen; however, this paper offers a machine reasoning approach to analyse patterns in alchemical language.
@article{Lang2022MachineReasoning, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {A Machine Reasoning Algorithm for the Digital Analysis of Alchemical Language and its Decknamen}, journal = {Ambix}, year = {2022}, volume = {69}, number = {1}, pages = {65--83}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00026980.2022.2038428}, doi = {10.1080/00026980.2022.2038428}, }
Experiments in the digital laboratory. What the Computational Humanities can learn about their definition and terminology from the History of Science

Sarah Lang

In Fabrikation von Erkenntnis. Experimente in den Digital Humanities, 2022

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The notion of experiment is widely discussed in Digital Humanities, yet a precise terminology is still lacking. This article argues that a narrow set of scenarios in the subfield of the Computational Humanities can implement a definition close to that of the Sciences which transcends the metaphor of playful exploration. It proposes that we should look to those Humanities disciplines which have already integrated experimental methods into their hermeneutic arsenal such as Experimental Archaeology and the Experimental History of Science. These share an emphasis on distinguishing ‘experiencing’ from ‘experimenting’ which I argue should be applied to the Digital Humanities notion of experiment as well.
@incollection{Lang2022, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Experiments in the digital laboratory. What the Computational Humanities can learn about their definition and terminology from the History of Science}, year = {2022}, editor = {Burghardt, Manuel and Dieckmann, Lisa and Steyer, Timo and Trilcke, Peer and Walkowski, Niels-Oliver and Weis, Joëlle and Wuttke, Ulrike}, booktitle = {Fabrikation von Erkenntnis. Experimente in den Digital Humanities}, series = {Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 166}, publisher = {Melusina Press}, address = {Esch-sur-Alzette (LU)}, doi = {10.26298/melusina.8f8w-y749-eitd}, url = {https://doi.org/10.26298/melusina.8f8w-y749-eitd}, }
Solving an alchemical cipher in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee

Richard Bean, Sarah Lang, and Megan Piorko

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2022), 2022

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This paper builds on a work in progress by Lang and Piorko published in HistoCrypt 2021, which presented a seventeenthcentury ciphertext and cipher table discovered in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee (Sloane MS 1902). Using Latin statistical models we have successfully deciphered the encrypted text. Our results found the plaintext to consist of 177 Latin words describing a practical experiment for the creation of the alchemical Philosophers’ Stone, presented as a chrysopoeic recipe. The encryption method is a variant of a Bellaso/Della Porta style-cipher, agreeing with the paper by Lang and Piorko. After correcting some errors in the seventeenth-century ciphertext and table it was noted that the cipherkey, 45 letters in length, forms part of the original plaintext and is also derived from an alchemical context. This article presents the transcription of the cipher table and ciphertext, the key, and the Latin plaintext, and discusses the decryption process as well as the historical context.
@inproceedings{lang2022solving, author = {Bean, Richard and Lang, Sarah and Piorko, Megan}, title = {Solving an alchemical cipher in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2022)}, editor = {Dahlke, Carola and Megyesi, Beáta}, year = {2022}, series = {Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 188}, pages = {12--21}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3384/ecp188388}, url = {https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/histocrypt/article/view/388}, }

2021

Assessing Michael Maier’s Contributions to Francis Anthony’s Apologia (1616) Using Stylometry

Sarah Lang

In Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Humanities Research 2021, 2021

Abs Bib PDF

This article attempts to shed new light on the collaboration between the chymical authors Michael Maier (1568–1622) and Francis Anthony (1550–1632) using stylometric authorship attribution. Maier and Anthony were friends and we know that they worked together on the English and Latin versions of Anthony’s Apologie or Apologia (1616) respectively. The question remains whether Maier was more than just a mere translator, as it has been claimed in the past – notably by Maier himself. Using R-Stylo, stylometric analyses are conducted. It is discussed what conclusions can be drawn from them given that we already know Maier and Anthony were working together and that Maier was the translator responsible for the Latin Apologia (1616) ascribed to Anthony. In the end, stylometry doesn’t offer enough evidence for us to make any definite claims regarding the authorship situation under discussion. It can, however, offer certain insights into the stylometric proximity between Maier and Anthony.
@inproceedings{Lang2021chrStylo, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Assessing Michael Maier's Contributions to Francis Anthony's Apologia (1616) Using Stylometry}, year = {2021}, editor = {Ehrmann, Maud and Karsdorp, Folgert and Wevers, Melvin and Andrews, Tara and Burghardt, Manuel and Kestemont, Mike and Manjavacas, Enrique and Piotrowski, Michael and van Zundert, Joris}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Humanities Research 2021}, pages = {346--358}, url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2989/short_paper44.pdf}, }

Deciphering the Philosophers’ Stone: how we cracked a 400-year-old alchemical cipher

Richard Bean, Megan Piorko, and Sarah Lang

Oct 2021

Abs Bib

@online{cipher2021conversation,
  author = {Bean, Richard and Piorko, Megan and Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Deciphering the Philosophers' Stone: how we cracked a 400-year-old alchemical cipher},
  year = {2021},
  month = oct,
  day = {13},
  journal = {The Conversation},
  url = {https://theconversation.com/deciphering-the-philosophers-stone-how-we-cracked-a-400-year-old-alchemical-cipher-167900}
}

Digital Humanities studieren. Digitale Methoden zu erlernen steht für Studierende hoch im Kurs

Sarah Lang

Der Standard, Blog Digitale Geisteswissenschaften, Oct 2021

Abs Bib

@article{Lang2021DigitalHumanities,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Digital Humanities studieren. Digitale Methoden zu erlernen steht für Studierende hoch im Kurs},
  journal = {Der Standard, Blog Digitale Geisteswissenschaften},
  year = {2021},
  month = oct,
  day = {11},
  url = {https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000129994349/digital-humanities-studieren}
}

Alchemische Decknamen digital entschlüsseln. Polysemantische Annotation und Machine Reasoning am Beispiel des Korpus des Iatrochymikers Michael Maier (1568–1622)

Sarah Lang

University of Graz, 2021

English Title: Decoding alchemical Decknamen digitally. Polysemantic Annotation and Machine Reasoning on the example of the corpus of iatrochymist Michael Maier (1568–1622)

Abs Bib

The transition from alchemical language to chemical nomenclature is understood to be the birthplace of chemistry as a science. This supposed ’Chemical Revolution’ seems closely linked to language, yet alchemical language is understudied. For a long time Umberto Eco’s theory of hermetic semiosis dominated the communis opinio on alchemical language, insinuating that alchemical ways of speaking result in never-ending spirals of semiosis which never lead anywhere. In this view, the ‘alchemical secret’ is an empty one and can never be resolved.However, since the 1990s, a new research paradigm pioneered by Lawrence Principe and William Newman has emerged. Under the banner of the ‘New Historiography of Alchemy’, alchemy scholars now recreate alchemical recipes in modern laboratories, with methods from the Experimental History of Science serving as epistemological aids for comprehension. But our understanding of alchemical language can also be advanced by the use of digital methods. This dissertation proposes the use of a digital method for the automated polysemantic annotation and disambiguation of the cryptographical stylistic device commonly referred to as Decknamen. It sets out to analyze the printed corpus of iatrochymist Michael Maier (1568-1622) concerning its use of Decknamen. It does so, on the one hand, using a SKOS and RDFS based digital knowledge organization system and on the other by making use of automated polysemantic annotation and Machine Reasoning.
@phdthesis{Lang2021diss, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Alchemische Decknamen digital entschlüsseln. Polysemantische Annotation und Machine Reasoning am Beispiel des Korpus des Iatrochymikers Michael Maier (1568--1622)}, school = {University of Graz}, year = {2021}, address = {Graz}, note = {English Title: Decoding alchemical Decknamen digitally. Polysemantic Annotation and Machine Reasoning on the example of the corpus of iatrochymist Michael Maier (1568--1622)}, }
Digitale Erschließungsmethoden für alchemische Texte am Beispiel der Symbola Aureae Mensae Michael Maiers

Sarah Lang

In Alchemie – Genealogie und Terminologie, Bilder, Techniken und Artefakte, 2021

Abs Bib

The growing availability of digitised and TEI-encoded alchemical texts offers new opportunities for the systematic study of early modern alchemical literature. However, while many sources have been digitised, they remain only superficially accessible, as their complex symbolic language and domain-specific terminology continue to pose considerable challenges for interpretation. This article explores how digital methods can support the semantic enrichment and analysis of alchemical texts, using Michael Maier’s Symbola Aureae Mensae (1617) as a case study. The contribution investigates the extent to which the annotation and interpretation of alchemical texts can be supported through digital knowledge organisation systems (KOS). It proposes the development of a SKOS-based thesaurus of alchemical concepts that serves as a Knowledge Organization System for the semi-automatic annotation of symbolic terminology within TEI-encoded texts. By representing alchemical concepts as Linked Data rather than isolated lexical items, the approach aims not only to facilitate access to otherwise obscure texts but also to enable analyses of conceptual relationships within individual works and across larger corpora. Beyond its technical implementation, the article argues that digital annotation constitutes a hermeneutic rather than merely a computational task. Making the implicit knowledge embedded in alchemical symbolism explicit through semantic annotation and knowledge representation creates new possibilities for both close and distant reading. The proposed methodology seeks to provide a transferable framework for the analysis of multilingual early modern alchemical corpora and to contribute to a deeper understanding of alchemical language, knowledge organisation, and scientific communication through Semantic Web technologies.
@inproceedings{lang2021hab, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Digitale Erschließungsmethoden für alchemische Texte am Beispiel der Symbola Aureae Mensae Michael Maiers}, year = {2021}, booktitle = {Alchemie -- Genealogie und Terminologie, Bilder, Techniken und Artefakte}, editor = {Feuerstein-Herz, Petra and Frietsch, Ute}, publisher = {Harrassowitz Verlag}, address = {Göttingen}, series = {Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 166}, pages = {133--152}, url = {https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Alchemie_%E2%80%93_Genealogie_und_Terminologie_Bilder_Techniken_und_Artefakte/titel_6929.ahtml} }

LZA-Datenformate: Vektorgrafikformate

Sarah Lang

2021

hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50

Abs Bib PDF

@online{Lang2021LZA,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {LZA-Datenformate: Vektorgrafikformate},
  year = {2021},
  editor = {Klug, Helmut W. and Galka, Selina and Steiner, Elisabeth},
  booktitle = {KONDE Weißbuch},
  url = {https://www.digitale-edition.at/o:konde.125},
  note = {hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50},
  keywords = {dh, long-term archiving}
}

Text Mining

Sarah Lang

2021

hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50

Abs Bib PDF

@online{Lang2021TextMining,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Text Mining},
  year = {2021},
  editor = {Klug, Helmut W. and Galka, Selina and Steiner, Elisabeth},
  booktitle = {KONDE Weißbuch},
  url = {https://www.digitale-edition.at/o:konde.194},
  note = {hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50},
  keywords = {dh, text mining, distant reading}
}

Michael Maier, Viatorium, hoc est, de monitibus planetarum septem seu metallorum, Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry 1618, Exemplar Universitätsbibliothek der Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Slg. G. Freytag H 1329 und Signatur Bibliothek Senckenberg 8° R 523.670

Sarah Lang

2021

Abs Bib

@online{Lang2021MaierViatorium,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Michael Maier, Viatorium, hoc est, de monitibus planetarum septem seu metallorum, Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry 1618, Exemplar Universitätsbibliothek der Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Slg. G. Freytag H 1329 und Signatur Bibliothek Senckenberg 8° R 523.670},
  year = {2021},
  editor = {Wagner, Berit},
  booktitle = {Virtuelle Ausstellung Matthäus Merian d.Ä. und die Bebilderung der Alchemie},
  url = {https://merian-alchemie.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/ausstellung/ii-alchemische-bildwelten/maier-viatorium-1618/},
  keywords = {history-of-science-alchemy, viatorium}
}

Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF, 2017-2019)

Sarah Lang and Ursula Gärtner

2021

hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50

Abs Bib

@online{Lang2021GRaF,
  author = {Lang, Sarah and Gärtner, Ursula},
  title = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF, 2017-2019)},
  year = {2021},
  editor = {Klug, Helmut W. and Galka, Selina and Steiner, Elisabeth},
  booktitle = {KONDE Weißbuch},
  url = {https://www.digitale-edition.at/o:konde.p21},
  note = {hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF}
}

An alchemical cipher in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee [Work In Progress]

Sarah Lang and Megan Piorko

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2021), 2021

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Alchemy, while being known for its secrecy, cryptographical and stylistic devices, isn’t known for its ciphers in particular. However, ciphers can sometimes be found in alchemists’ and chymists’ (laboratory) notebooks. This paper discusses a ciphertext and cipher table found in a shared notebook by John and Arthur Dee (Sloane MS 1902). It presents a bibliographical description as well as context for interpretation. However, thus far it has not been possible to solve the cipher.
@inproceedings{LangPiorko2021, author = {Lang, Sarah and Piorko, Megan}, title = {An alchemical cipher in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee [Work In Progress]}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2021)}, editor = {Dahlke, Carola}, year = {2021}, series = {Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 183}, pages = {90--93}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3384/ecp183161}, url = {https://ecp.ep.liu.se/index.php/histocrypt/article/view/161}, keywords = {alchemy, Arthur Dee, John Dee, cipher} }

2020

Digitale Lernplattformen und Open Educational Resources im altsprachlichen Unterricht I: Technische Spielräume am Beispiel ‚Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‘ (GRaF)

Sarah Lang and Lukas Spielhofer

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften (zfdg), 2020

Abs DOI Bib PDF

The topic of teaching and learning in digital spaces has already been discussed extensively in the past few years. By now, digital methods have been well established in both academic research and school education. However, the implementation of the recently gained insights from the field of media didactics into the theory and practice of teaching Greek and Latin has largely been neglected. Very little attention is paid in particular to the field of digital resources, Open Educational Resources respectively, when it comes to teaching methodology in Classics. Therefore, this article – as the first part of an interdisciplinary analysis – aims at approaching these digital media from a Digital Humanities point of view. It is primarily focused on terminology and definitions in order to determine the technical possibilities of digital educational resources for use in classes of classical philology. The only recently completed digital edition of the ›Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‹ (GRaF) (›Graz repository of ancient fables‹) will be used as an example.
@article{graf2020zfdg, author = {Lang, Sarah and Spielhofer, Lukas}, title = {Digitale Lernplattformen und Open Educational Resources im altsprachlichen Unterricht I: Technische Spielräume am Beispiel ‚Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‘ (GRaF)}, year = {2020}, journal = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften (zfdg)}, volume = {5}, url = {https://zfdg.de/2020_004}, keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF}, doi = {10.17175/2020_004} }

Poésie (al-)chimique. Comment approcher le langage de l’alchimie néo-latine du XVII e siècle à travers un thesaurus Semantic Web ?

Sarah Lang

In Terminologie & Ontologie : Théories et Applications. Actes de la conférence. TOTh 2019. Le Bourget du Lac – 6 & 7 juin 2019, 2020

Bib

@inproceedings{tothProceedings2020,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Poésie (al-)chimique. Comment approcher le langage de l'alchimie néo-latine du XVII e siècle à travers un thesaurus Semantic Web ?},
  year = {2020},
  booktitle = {Terminologie \& Ontologie : Théories et Applications. Actes de la conférence. TOTh 2019. Le Bourget du Lac -- 6 \& 7 juin 2019},
  editor = {Roche, Christophe},
  publisher = {Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc},
  series = {Collection "Terminologica"},
  pages = {441--443},
  url = {http://toth.condillac.org}
}

Digitale Annotation alchemischer Decknamen. Die Allegoriae werden uns nit mehr verborgen seyn

Sarah Lang

In Annotations in Scholarly Editions and Research. Functions, Differentiation, Systematization, 2020

Abs DOI Bib PDF

This chapter aims to show the uses of modelling alchemical terms in a digital thesaurus using the example of Michael Maier’s (1568–1622) writings. Alchemical language is supposed to be full of secrets and it is indeed full of ambiguities. They are revealed to initiated adepts (‘experts’) who are familiar with the underlying semiotic codes of analogy. Its allegories have wrongly brought alchemy the miscredit of being known as an ‘esoteric pseudo-chemistry’, which recent studies have proven wrong. Alchemical language is an example of scientia poetica; its Decknamen are coded, ornate and unstable. Computational methods like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Named Entity Recognition (NER) and knowledge representation technologies, for example using thesauri of terms of alchemy in XML, allow us to handle the typical ambiguity of alchemical data. We can make implicit instances of knowledge explicit in a digital thesaurus while the linking of a concrete word (a string or label) in a text to the thesaurus remains loose enough to allow for imprecise poetic language. Computational models are “temporary states in a process of coming to know”, in which computers are not “knowledge jukeboxes” but “representation machines” (McCarty). They create a systematic approximation of reality, and from its shortcomings we learn about the reality we aimed to model. This might be a viable and helpful new approach in research on alchemy, a field which has shown a great reluctance to make meaning explicit in the past. But it also comes with the responsibility of ensuring that annotation remains as objective as possible, open to uncertainty and not too concrete in case of ambiguities. The main challenges are linking concepts and labels, and avoiding interpretation in the process of making information explicit, since the annotation will be done automatically.
@inproceedings{annotationenWuppertal2020, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Digitale Annotation alchemischer Decknamen. Die Allegoriae werden uns nit mehr verborgen seyn}, year = {2020}, booktitle = {Annotations in Scholarly Editions and Research. Functions, Differentiation, Systematization}, editor = {Nantke, Julia and Schlupkothen, Frederik}, publisher = {De Gruyter Open Access}, address = {Berlin}, pages = {201--219}, url = {https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110689112-010/html}, doi = {10.1515/9783110689112-010}, }
Die Fabel lehrt – Fabula docet. Das Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln als fachdidaktische digitale Ressource

Sarah Lang

In Funktion und Aufgabe digitaler Medien in Geschichtswissenschaft und Geschichtsunterricht, 2020

Abs Bib

This paper addresses the role and function of digital media in the teaching and communicating history by examining the didactics of classical philological literature as a special case of history education. Using the Graz Repository of Ancient Fables (GRaF) as a case study, it explores broader questions concerning the definition, function, and scholarly status of digital educational resources. The paper situates the GRaF project within the Digital Humanities and considers how it should be conceptualised: Can it be described as a "digital textbook," or does it qualify as a genuinely digital scholarly edition? These questions are linked to the broader issue of the place of subject-specific educational resources within the Digital Humanities. The paper further examines how classical philology and Open Educational Resources intersect in the GRaF project, arguing that GRaF constitutes a sustainable, scholarly, and genuinely digital OER. Finally, it discusses licensing in the context of open educational resources, the role of citizen science, and the transferability of the project’s methodological approach to other subject areas.
@inproceedings{age2020, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Die Fabel lehrt -- Fabula docet. Das Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln als fachdidaktische digitale Ressource}, year = {2020}, booktitle = {Funktion und Aufgabe digitaler Medien in Geschichtswissenschaft und Geschichtsunterricht}, editor = {Matijević, Krešimir}, publisher = {Computus Druck}, address = {Gutenberg}, series = {Abhandlungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Geschichte und EDV, 3}, pages = {103--116}, url = {https://www.computus-druck.com/press/gesamtprogramm/reihe-aage/funktion-und-aufgabe-digitaler-medien-in-geschichtswissenschaft-und-geschichtsunterricht/} }

Benedek Láng, Real Life Cryptology. Ciphers and Secrets in Early Modern Hungary

Sarah Lang

Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS), 2020

Bib

@article{Lang2020LangReview,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Benedek Láng, Real Life Cryptology. Ciphers and Secrets in Early Modern Hungary},
  journal = {Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS)},
  year = {2020},
  volume = {2019},
  number = {1},
  pages = {140--142},
}

Comined book review of: Katherine Ellison, Susan Kim (eds.), A Material History of Medieval and Early Modern Ciphers. Cryptography and the History of Literacy & Katherine Ellison, A Cultural History of Early Modern English Cryptography Manuals

Sarah Lang

Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS), 2020

Bib

@article{Lang2020EllisonReview,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Comined book review of: Katherine Ellison, Susan Kim (eds.), A Material History of Medieval and Early Modern Ciphers. Cryptography and the History of Literacy \& Katherine Ellison, A Cultural History of Early Modern English Cryptography Manuals},
  journal = {Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS)},
  year = {2020},
  volume = {2019},
  number = {2},
  pages = {157--159},
}

Webportal

Sarah Lang

2020

Technical implementation.

Bib

@online{Lang2020Webportal,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Webportal},
  year = {2020},
  editor = {Gärtner, Ursula},
  booktitle = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF)},
  url = {gams.uni-graz.at/graf},
  address = {Graz},
  note = {Technical implementation.},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF},
}

Liste online verfügbarer Ressourcen für den altsprachlichen Unterricht

Sarah Lang

2020

Bib PDF

@online{Lang2020Ressourcen,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Liste online verfügbarer Ressourcen für den altsprachlichen Unterricht},
  year = {2020},
  editor = {Gärtner, Ursula},
  booktitle = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF)},
  url = {http://gams.uni-graz.at/context:graf?mode=ressourcen},
  address = {Graz},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF},
}

Zur Benutzung des Textportals

Sarah Lang

2020

Bib PDF

@online{Lang2020Benutzung,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Zur Benutzung des Textportals},
  year = {2020},
  editor = {Gärtner, Ursula},
  booktitle = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF)},
  url = {http://gams.uni-graz.at/context:graf?mode=benutzungsanleitung},
  address = {Graz},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF},
}

Dokumentation

Sarah Lang

2020

Bib PDF

@online{Lang2020Dokumentation,
  author = {Lang, Sarah},
  title = {Dokumentation},
  year = {2020},
  editor = {Gärtner, Ursula},
  booktitle = {Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln (GRaF)},
  url = {http://gams.uni-graz.at/context:graf?mode=doku},
  keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF},
  address = {Graz},
}

Digitale Lernplattformen und Open Educational Resources im altsprachlichen Unterricht II: Didaktische Spielräume am Beispiel ‚Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‘ (GRaF)

Lukas Spielhofer and Sarah Lang

Ianus: Informationen zum altsprachlichen Unterricht, 2020

Abs Bib

The topic of teaching and learning in digital spaces has already been discussed extensively in the past few years. By now, digital methods have been well established in both academic research and school education. However, the implementation of the recently gained insights from the field of media didactics into the theory and practice of teaching Greek and Latin has largely been neglected. Very little attention is paid in particular to the field of digital resources, Open Educational Resources respectively, when it comes to teaching methodology in Classics. Therefore, this article – as the secibd part of an interdisciplinary analysis – aims at approaching these digital media from a didactics point of view. The recently completed digital edition of the ›Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‹ (GRaF) (›Graz repository of ancient fables‹) is used as an example.
@article{ianus2020graf, author = {Spielhofer, Lukas and Lang, Sarah}, title = {Digitale Lernplattformen und Open Educational Resources im altsprachlichen Unterricht II: Didaktische Spielräume am Beispiel ‚Grazer Repositorium antiker Fabeln‘ (GRaF)}, journal = {Ianus: Informationen zum altsprachlichen Unterricht}, year = {2020}, volume = {41}, keywords = {classics, digital classics, fables, antiquity, Latin, GRaF}, pages = {31--43}, }
The Computational Humanities and Toxic Masculinity? A (long) reflection

Sarah Lang

Apr 2020

Abs Bib

This blog post picked up on sentiments circulating on Twitter in early 2020 surrounding the founding of the Computational Humanities Research conference. Some Digital Humanists feared that this represented a breakaway by a privileged, predominantly male group focusing on the technical aspects of the field, closely aligned with computer science, from what they perceived as the "softer" areas of the field, including critical and feminist humanities. The blog post sparked significant discussion and is still regularly cited in discussions of this phenomenon and related debates, such as the hack-versus-yack debate, the question of the role coding abilities play in whether people "count" as DH, and the disciplinary position of DH and CH.
@misc{lang_computationalToxic_Ninja_2020, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {The Computational Humanities and Toxic Masculinity? A (long) reflection}, howpublished = {The LaTeX Ninja blog}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://latex-ninja.com/2020/04/19/the-computational-humanities-and-toxic-masculinity-a-long-reflection/}, }

2018

Tragisches Ritual? Zum Aigisthosmord der euripideischen Elektra im Opferkontext

Sarah Lang

Eisodos: Zeitschrift für Antike Literatur und Theorie, 2018

Abs Bib PDF

This article examines the significance of the sacrificial context for the portrayal of Aegisthus’ murder in Euripides’ Electra. While sacrifice in Greek tragedy has long been recognised as a central topic of scholarly discussion, comparatively little attention has been paid to the killing of Aegisthus, despite its importance as the moment marking the transition from illegitimate to legitimate rule. The murder takes place within the framework of a communal sacrificial ritual. By drawing on theories of ritual and values, the article argues that the sacrificial setting is not merely a backdrop for the dramatic action but is essential to understanding the meaning and function of Aegisthus’ death. In doing so, it highlights an aspect of Euripides’ Electra that has received comparatively little attention and demonstrates how ritual and value theory can contribute to the interpretation of sacrificial violence in Greek tragedy.
@article{Lang2018eisodos, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Tragisches Ritual? Zum Aigisthosmord der euripideischen Elektra im Opferkontext}, journal = {Eisodos: Zeitschrift für Antike Literatur und Theorie}, year = {2018}, volume = {2018}, number = {1}, }
Perseus Digital Library

Sarah Lang

RIDE: A Review Journal for Digital Editions and Resources, 2018

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Perseus Digital Library is a well-established Digital Humanities project providing a library of out-of-copyright editions of canonical world literature with a focus on the Classical languages while expanding its scope beyond its original field. Apart from being a text collection, Perseus also provides a plethora of tools for the analysis of its text material and builds upon a sound base of methodological grounding. The digital library is made up of one main collection (Greek and Roman materials) and several smaller sub-collections spanning a range of other subjects. Data acquisition is achieved semi-automatically. The contents of the library consist of out-of-print text editions, dictionaries and commentaries being enriched by the supply of digital tools for analysis. Perseus Digital Library is reviewed as a whole but a special focus of the review lies on the Greek and Roman sub-collection and sub-projects.
@article{Lang2018perseus, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Perseus Digital Library}, journal = {RIDE: A Review Journal for Digital Editions and Resources}, year = {2018}, volume = {8}, url = {https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-8/perseus/}, doi = {10.18716/ride.a.8.3}, }