Wednesday, November 13, 2019
4:00PM - 5:00PM
University Park Campus
Ahmanson Lab (LVL 301)

Woodblock printing, or xylography, the dominant textual print technology in East Asia, is fundamentally different from Western letterpress printing, or typography, and it presents particular challenges to the identification and authentication of editions of books published in China over the thousand-year history of traditional printing in China. Based on decades of experience authenticating and cataloguing Chinese rare books, the speaker will introduce a wide variety of bibliographical problems and their interesting, and sometimes complex, solutions. The lecture will provide a comprehensive background to the history of printing in China and East Asia, and it will open up avenues of understanding for Western historians of the book.

Please RSVP if you would like to attend.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the USC Libraries Dean’s Challenge Grant, East Asian Studies Center, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and East Asian Library.