Books in the Contact Zone: Between Amatl Papers and the Printing Press, Mexico 1500–1600 – The Sol M. and Mary Ann O’Brian Malkin Lecture

Date: 12 June 2023
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Dome Room, UVA Rotunda
Lecturer: Barbara E. Mundy - Robertson Chair in Latin American Art, Tulane University

The destruction of Indigenous books is one of the tragic legacies of the European Invasion of the Americas. Less known is the history that unfolded in the bonfires’ wake. Mundy will show how Indigenous writers and artists working in Mexico could draw upon a millennia-long book tradition. The strength and depth of this tradition allowed them to absorb and adopt many of the new technologies sent over by Europeans, including alphabetic writing, European paper and ink, and new binding structures for books.  Mundy’s talk will focus on these bicultural Indigenous books to chart the history of an Indigenous book tradition in Mexico that was never static, but flexible and responsive to new conditions.