Catus Sapiens Vilnensis: The Guardian of the Archives Through the Eyes of the Future
In 2025, the Lithuanian State Historical Archives stepped into the technological future by using the Transkribus platform to recognize handwritten texts and develop new language models. At the same time, this progress opened the door to unique stories about the guardians of the archives.
CATUS SAPIENS VILNENSIS. Sapienti sat.
This story began long before modern technologies – before Sprogis or Gorbačevskis, perhaps even in the time of Gediminas, or maybe earlier still. It is impossible to determine the exact date; that would require extensive research.
In ancient times, the greatest scourge of archives was mice. They mercilessly destroyed parchments and papers marked by time, greasy hands, and history. Archivists were protected from this threat by cats – silent, vigilant, and patient guardians of the archives.
One cat of the Vilnius archive stood out from all the others. Large, black, and green-eyed, he was interested not only in mice but also in the documents themselves. Over time, constant presence among manuscripts and texts developed his intellectual – or perhaps even magical – abilities. His head grew larger, his gaze sharper. Not all archivists saw him, but many noticed a strange phenomenon: illegible, blurred texts would suddenly become understandable, as if someone invisible were helping to read them.
When the archive changed locations, the cat traveled along with the documents. To this day, he is believed to help overcome difficult scribbles. After all, you have surely noticed it yourself: a word refuses to yield, you look away for just a minute – and when you return, you read it effortlessly. Sapienti sat.
Thus was born CATUS SAPIENS VILNENSIS – the guardian and helper of archives, now assisting in reading the past with the help of artificial intelligence. The cat’s digital form communicates perfectly with the Transkribus platform and helps transcribe handwritten documents, uniting the old archival tradition with the modern power of artificial intelligence.