Kristof Selleslach

Kristof Selleslach is curator of archives at Museum Plantin-Moretus. He is making the business and family archives of the Officina Plantiniana accessible. His research topics relate to the Plantin Press, including the succession of the family business to the next generation, the privilege policy, and the journeymen on the shop floor. He started a Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam on the intergenerational succession and transformation of the Officina Plantiniana in the seventeenth century. In addition, he is editorial secretary and editor of De Gulden Passer | The Golden Compasses, a century-old journal for book history.

Kristof Selleslach will be speaking at the Digital Collections Summt 2025 :

Opening up the archives, or how to transcribe with a little help from AI and online volunteers

The archives of the Officina Plantinia – the renowned printing office established by Christopher Plantin in the sixteenth century – represent the core for historical research and storytelling at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp. Online access to digitisations and full-text searchable transcriptions of these early modern records gives the museum an opportunity to reach out to a worldwide audience. Artificial intelligence for text recognition and support from an online community of enthusiastic volunteers facilitates the production of (nearly) perfect transcriptions.