Career

Álvaro Cuéllar González has developed a career defined by international collaboration, interdisciplinary research, scientific leadership, and the transfer of knowledge to society in the field of computational approaches to early modern Spanish literature. Since 2017, he has co-led the project Stylometry Applied to Spanish Golden Age Theatre, which brings together more than 120 researchers from different countries (Italy, Germany, France, the United States, Mexico, Norway, among others) and over 100 university students contributing texts for the computational analysis of a corpus of around 3,000 plays. He is responsible for creating TEXORO, the largest textual database dedicated to Spanish Golden Age theatre, which contains 40 million words and is used daily by scholars. Its development has involved the use of artificial intelligence techniques applied to the automatic transcription of early modern printed and manuscript sources.

He has presented his research at international conferences held in Mexico, France, Spain, Japan, Austria, China, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and other countries, and has delivered invited lectures at institutions such as the National Library of Spain, the University of Vienna, the University of Zurich, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Perugia, the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, and the Classical Theatre Festivals of Almagro and Olmedo. He has also given plenary lectures at the IMAL Centre in Brussels, the University of Geneva, the University of Cádiz, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Rey Juan Carlos University, and the UNED, among others, and has been appointed coordinator of the Digital Humanities section for the AISO Conference (Buenos Aires, 2026). His work has attracted significant media attention, with coverage in outlets such as The Times, The Guardian, Le Figaro, Reuters, BBC, CNN, El País, ABC, RTVE, El Mundo, Japan News, and Der Standard, among others. Two plays whose authorship he has established through his research —La monja alférez and La francesa Laura— have been performed by professional theatre companies in both Spain and the United States.

His scholarly output includes monographs published by leading academic publishers such as RBA Gredos and Reichenberger, articles in academic journals such as Anuario Lope de Vega, Hipogrifo, Janus, Anuario Calderoniano, and Revista de Literatura, as well as widely used digital resources for Golden Age researchers. His works have received over 500 citations and are part of nine funded research projects in Spain, Germany, and Austria. He has been awarded fellowships and distinctions such as the La Caixa Fellowship for postgraduate studies in the United States, the Best Project (2018) and Best Article (2023) awards from the International Association of Hispanic Digital Humanities, finalist recognition in the Archiletras Awards (2023), the Sigma Delta Phi Fellowship (2021), the Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Contract (Autonomous University of Barcelona), the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Seal of Excellence, and an invitation as a Mercator Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) at the University of Tübingen.

Research Lines

Research

Stylometry

Stylometry

Computational analysis of literary style for authorship attribution and characterization of Spanish Golden Age texts.

Corpus Construction

Corpus Construction

Development of large digital corpora of Golden Age theater with enriched metadata and advanced linguistic annotation.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Application of machine learning and deep learning techniques for automated analysis of historical literary heritage.

Automatic Transcription

Automatic Transcription

Development of optical character recognition systems specialized in manuscripts and old printed texts.

Automatic Copyist Detection

Automatic Copyist Detection

Computational identification of scribal hands in manuscripts through automated paleographic analysis.

Automatic Dating

Automatic Dating

Chronological estimation of literary texts through computational linguistic and stylistic analysis.

Synthetic Handwriting Generation

Synthetic Handwriting Generation

Creation of artificial handwriting using generative models and neural networks.

Featured

Publications 31

503 total citations

All Publications

From Atoms to Waves: Rhythmic Stylometry for Authorship Studies of Early Modern Spanish Theatre
Article
From Atoms to Waves: Rhythmic Stylometry for Authorship Studies of Early Modern Spanish Theatre
Álvaro Cuéllar
El estudio explora la aplicación de la estilometría rítmica al teatro del Siglo de Oro, analizando patrones de sílabas tónicas y átonas para identificar la huella autorial. Los resultados muestran un enfoque prometedor y complementario a la estilometría léxica tradicional.
La Inteligencia Artificial al rescate del Siglo de Oro: transcripción y modernización automática de mil trescientos impresos y manuscritos teatrales
Article
La Inteligencia Artificial al rescate del Siglo de Oro: transcripción y modernización automática de mil trescientos impresos y manuscritos teatrales
Álvaro Cuéllar
Access
Se han entrenado, mediante inteligencia artificial y técnicas de HTR (Transkribus), tres modelos públicos capaces de transcribir y modernizar textos teatrales del Siglo de Oro con alta precisión (≈97 % en impresos, 91 % en manuscritos). Gracias a ellos se han procesado unas 1.300 obras, integradas en los proyectos ETSO y TEXORO, que proporcionan una base sólida para la edición filológica y los estudios estilométricos de autoría.
Cronología y estilometría: datación automática de comedias de Lope de Vega
Article
Cronología y estilometría: datación automática de comedias de Lope de Vega
Álvaro Cuéllar
Access
Se aplica la estilometría a la datación de comedias del Siglo de Oro, empleando autógrafos de Lope de Vega con fecha conocida. El análisis de palabras, lemas y categorías gramaticales muestra una correlación entre estilo y cronología, con un error medio de ±5 años, reducido a ±4 en un corpus más amplio, lo que confirma el potencial de esta técnica para estimar fechas de composición.
Stylometry and Spanish Golden Age Theatre. An Evaluation of Authorship Attribution in a Control Group of One Hundred Undisputed Plays
Book chapter
Stylometry and Spanish Golden Age Theatre. An Evaluation of Authorship Attribution in a Control Group of One Hundred Undisputed Plays
Álvaro Cuéllar
Access
Este estudio evalúa cien comedias del Siglo de Oro de autoría segura mediante el paquete stylo de R. Se analizan las configuraciones que optimizan la clasificación autoral (algoritmos, MFW, culling y n-gramas) y la extensión mínima necesaria para resultados fiables. La validación cruzada demuestra la eficacia de la estilometría en la atribución de autoría en el teatro áureo.
Coloso Español - Modelo general de transcripción con 11 millones de palabras
Model
Coloso Español - Modelo general de transcripción con 11 millones de palabras
Álvaro Cuéllar (coordinador), Stefano Bazzaco, Alba Comino, Andrés Echavarría Peláez, José Manuel Fradejas Rueda, Francisco Gago Jover, Ana García Serrano, Raquel Liceras-Garrido, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Humberto Olea Montero, Rocío Ortuño Casanova, Fernando J. Pancorbo, Milena Peralta Friedburg, Eva Sánchez-Salido, Rodrigo Vega Sánchez, Juan Carlos Vallejo Velásquez, Ezequiel Villani
Access
Supermodelo de inteligencia artificial que unifica todos los modelos anteriores para la transcripción de textos en español, tanto impresos como manuscritos de cualquier época. Entrenado con 11 millones de palabras y una precisión del 96 %. Coordinado por Álvaro Cuéllar, reúne materiales de distintos equipos académicos y representa un hito en el tratamiento de archivos y bibliotecas hispanas.

Conferences, seminars, and talks

Talks 59

Featured Talks

All Talks

Invited talk

Encuentro de Investigadores en Humanidades Digitales

Álvaro Cuéllar
XIV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro (AISO)
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Invited talk

TEXORO 2.0: un gran buscador para la literatura aurisecular

Álvaro Cuéllar
ASODAT
Universidad de Salamanca
Plenary lecture

Lope sintético: generación artificial de letra manuscrita para la investigación filológica

Álvaro Cuéllar
MOTIV-ARTE VII. Humanidades e Inteligencia Artificial: De la investigación a la enseñanza y la divulgación
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Invited talk

Estilometría léxica, rítmica y estrófica: un tridente computacional para estudiar la autoría en el teatro del Siglo de Oro

Álvaro Cuéllar
I Seminario HHDD - Humanidades Digitales y Datos
Universidad de Málaga
Invited talk

Inteligencia Artificial para la identificación caligráfica: el caso de los autógrafos de Lope de Vega

Álvaro Cuéllar
Seminario online «Bytes + documentos escritos»
Campus Forense (Córdoba, Argentina)
Plenary lecture

Tras la huella autorial y caligráfica: Inteligencia Artificial para el estudio del patrimonio textual

Álvaro Cuéllar
Inauguración del Máster en Humanidades Digitales
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Applied research

Projects 10

Co-director

Stylometry Applied to the Spanish Golden Age Theatre

Stylometry Applied to the Spanish Golden Age Theatre (ETSO) is a project directed by Álvaro Cuéllar (UAB) and Germán Vega García-Luengos (University of Valladolid) that applies artificial intelligence and stylometric methods to the study of thousands of Golden Age plays. Based on a corpus of more than 2,800 texts, the project investigates authorship, chronology, and textual relationships among works, combining traditional philology and digital humanities to uncover new attributions and better understand the creative processes of early modern playwrights.

Co-director

TEXORO: Searching 3,000 Spanish Golden Age Plays

TEXORO is a digital platform that enables textual searches across nearly 3,000 theatrical works by more than 350 authors. Developed by Álvaro Cuéllar and Germán Vega García-Luengos, it provides unified access to the largest digital corpus of Spanish Golden Age theatre, facilitating the consultation and direct study of texts. It currently supports simple searches by words or exact phrases, with future developments planned to expand its analytical and exploratory capabilities.

Technical coordinator

THAL-IA: Golden Age Theatrical Heritage — Artificial Intelligence and Spectral Imaging

THAL-IA (Golden Age Theatrical Heritage: Artificial Intelligence and Spectral Imaging) is a project directed by Sònia Boadas (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) that explores the relationships between Spanish Golden Age theatrical manuscripts and the various agents involved in their transmission —authors, scribes, censors, and booksellers. Using artificial intelligence and multispectral imaging techniques, the project aims to identify authorial and scribal hands, reconstruct networks of textual production and circulation, and offer new perspectives on materiality and authorship in early modern theatre.

Mercator Fellow

Tracing Regularities in Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Dramatic Œuvre with a Computational Approach

DFG-funded project within the Computational Literary Studies program, carried out between the University of Tübingen and the Institute for Computational Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart. It quantitatively analyzes Calderón de la Barca’s dramatic works using TEI-XML encoded texts, applying lexical analysis, character network modeling, metrical structure, and temporal dynamics. The project aims to identify stylistic regularities, refine genre classifications, and propose new datings for works of uncertain or disputed authorship.

Collaborator

PROLOPE

PROLOPE is a research group at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, founded in 1989 by Alberto Blecua and currently directed by Gonzalo Pontón Gijón and Sònia Boadas. Its mission is the critical edition and comprehensive philological study of Lope de Vega’s theatre, focusing on textual transmission, editorial history, and the literary context of his comedias. Since its foundation, the group has published the Partes de comedias in rigorous, annotated editions and promotes the international dissemination of Lope’s legacy through the journal Anuario Lope de Vega and various digital humanities research projects.

Media appearances

Press 80

Scientific Communication

Outreach 9

Podcast: Asar el Faisán del Amor — Álvaro Cuéllar and Sergio Rodríguez Nicolás
Radio

Podcast: Asar el Faisán del Amor — Álvaro Cuéllar and Sergio Rodríguez Nicolás

Episode of the podcast Asar el Faisán del Amor, broadcast by the University of León Radio, where Álvaro Cuéllar and Sergio Rodríguez Nicolás discuss the impact of Digital Humanities and stylometry on the study of Spanish Golden Age theatre.

Listen
What Lope de Vega Still Hides
TV

What Lope de Vega Still Hides

Feature aired on Informe Semanal about the use of artificial intelligence and spectral imaging to study Lope de Vega’s autograph manuscripts. Featuring Sònia Boadas and Álvaro Cuéllar (UAB).

Watch
The Lost Play by Lope de Vega 'Discovered' by Artificial Intelligence
TV

The Lost Play by Lope de Vega 'Discovered' by Artificial Intelligence

TV feature by La Sexta Columna examining the discovery of the previously unknown play 'La francesa Laura', attributed to Lope de Vega through artificial intelligence. Featuring Germán Vega and Álvaro Cuéllar.

Watch
Artificial Philology
Article

Artificial Philology

Outreach article on how artificial intelligence is transforming Golden Age Philology. It explores its use in authorship attribution, automatic dating, and the reading of manuscripts through computational tools.

Read
Stylometry: A Conversation with Álvaro Cuéllar
Interview

Stylometry: A Conversation with Álvaro Cuéllar

Radio interview where Álvaro Cuéllar explains how artificial intelligence and stylometry help attribute authorship, read complex manuscripts, and date Spanish Golden Age texts. Among the discoveries is the identification of La francesa Laura as a play by Lope de Vega.

Read
Álvaro Cuéllar: “Recovering a Work by the Phoenix of Wits Is a Gift to Hispanic Heritage”
Interview

Álvaro Cuéllar: “Recovering a Work by the Phoenix of Wits Is a Gift to Hispanic Heritage”

Interview with Álvaro Cuéllar following the discovery of a previously unknown Lope de Vega play through artificial intelligence. He reflects on his international career, the challenges of philological research, and the transformative potential of AI in the study of the Spanish Golden Age.

Read
Discovering a Lost Play by Lope de Vega: Álvaro Cuéllar
Interview

Discovering a Lost Play by Lope de Vega: Álvaro Cuéllar

Interview published by the Transkribus team about the discovery of La Francesa Laura. Álvaro Cuéllar explains the technical and philological process that led to the attribution of the play to Lope de Vega through artificial intelligence and stylometry within the ETSO project.

Read
Interview on the BBC
Radio

Interview on the BBC

BBC Radio 4’s prestigious current-affairs programme The World Tonight featured an interview with Álvaro Cuéllar (UAB) about the rediscovery of La francesa Laura. The segment explained how artificial intelligence helped attribute this lost play to Lope de Vega, within one of the UK’s leading programmes for cultural and scientific journalism.

Listen
Exhibition 'Lope and the Theatre of the Spanish Golden Age'
Article

Exhibition 'Lope and the Theatre of the Spanish Golden Age'

Participation in the BNE exhibition Lope and the Theatre of the Spanish Golden Age, featuring a stylometric dendrogram created by Álvaro Cuéllar and Germán Vega.

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