Lists of visitors are regularly maintained records used to document the temporary presence of non-resident individuals as well as the mobility of local inhabitants. In the present case, the project focuses on the weekly lists of visitors published between 1762 and 1802 in the newspaper Regensburgisches Diarium of the Imperial City of Regensburg. These records were compiled by gate clerks at the city gates on behalf of the municipal authorities in order to monitor and document movements into and through the city. They include information such as names, social status, places of origin, travel groups, and modes of transportation. Today, lists of visitors serve as important sources in mobility history research. They can be analyzed, for example, to reconstruct movement patterns, migration trends, and social networks.
This time, the DSC Seed Grant supports the further development of an AI-based workflow for extracting mobility data from visitor lists originating from the early modern period. The lists published in the announcement paper Regensburgisches Diarium comprise approximately 500.000 recorded mobility events. In terms of scope, richness, and diversity, the sources represent an exceptional data basis for the German-speaking region.
Unlike many early modern visitor lists from other cities, which include only high-ranking travelers, the Regensburger records cover the full spectrum of the mobile population of the period. The systematic extraction of information from the sources, therefore, allows unique insights into the movement patterns of marginalized people and mobile individuals who have previously been conceptualized as immobile. These include, for example, traveling women of various social classes, such as Jewish women, merchant women, and (Black) servants.
In the field of historical sciences, the AI-supported analysis of large-scale, historical text sources is still in its early stages. Hence, the funded project also contributes to the establishment of a reproducible data science method that can be applied to other source collections in the historical and cultural sciences. Thus, the project also supports the strengthening of data-based research in the humanities. In addition, the collected research data will also be published to make it freely accessible and reusable in accordance with the FAIR principles.
Funding recipient:
Dr. Sarah Lentz (Faculty 08 – Social Sciences)
Funding period:
01 April 2026 – 31 September 2026
Are you interested in the DSC Seed Grant?
You can find more information about the DSC Seed Grant here.
For questions, please contact:
Dr. Lena Steinmann
DSC Coordinator
Tel. +49 (421) 218 - 63941
E-Mail: lena.steinmannprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
