Richard & Mary Rouse History of the Book Lecture by Kristina Richardson

“Between Two Worlds: The Roma and Early Global Print Cultures”

Guest Speaker: Kristina Richardson (University of Virginia)

Richardson will show that Roma and other traveling people not only blocked printing between 800 and 1450 in North Africa and West Asia, but as they migrated into central Europe in the 1410s, they introduced print technology in their new homes. Traveling people were the links bridging the early print cultures of North Africa, West Asia, and Central Europe.

Kristina Richardson is the John L. Nau Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on premodern non-elite Arab history, particularly the history of people with disabilities, users of sign language, Romani groups (ghurabā’), craftspeople, and enslaved laborers and entertainers. Her current book project is Black Basra: Race, Labor, and Piety in Early Islamic History.

The History of the Book Lecture series, established in 1993 through the efforts of Richard and Mary Rouse, provides an annual venue for internationally recognized authorities on medieval and Renaissance books to present their expertise at UCLA. The lecture’s focus alternates each year between medieval manuscripts and Renaissance books. The topics explored in past lectures were book and manuscript illustration, the development of printing, early book printers and sellers, the book trade, and medieval and Renaissance book and manuscript collections.

Register to attend in Royce 314

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More information about past Richard and Mary Rouse History of the Book lectures can be found here.