Learn About the Libraries' Newest Rare Book at 5:30 Tonight

LeeAnna Ta Thao

Illustration from Historia de Nueva España

Last fall, a rare copy of Historia de Nueva España Escrita Por Su Esclarecido Conquistador Hernan Cortes, Aumentada Con Otros Documentos, Y Notas, Por El Ilustrissimo Senor Don Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, Arzobispo De México was added to the University Libraries Special Collections Division. To celebrate the acquisition, Ana Pulido Rull, endowed associate professor for the School of Art in Fulbright College, will give a public presentation at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in the Honors Student Lounge in Gearhart Hall (GEAR 130). 

"Dr. Pulido Rull is a great collaborator with Special Collections, and we are fortunate to host her students of Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian art history almost every semester," said Joshua Youngblood, history and rare books librarian. "This remarkable copy of the 1770 edition of Historia de Nueva-España has already been used by her students and those in Latin American literature and will be of great interest for faculty and students across the humanities and in interdisciplinary fields of study."

Rull will provide historical and cultural context for Historia de Nueva España and speak to its significance as documentary evidence of post-colonized Mexico. She will also discuss the book's illustrations, which include an elaborate frontispiece, folding maps and 31 full-page illustrations made from copperplate engravings depicting indigenous creations. 

Rull received her Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University and joined the Art Department of the U of A in fall 2012. A native of Mexico City, she also holds a B.A. in history from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she began her research on indigenous painted maps and manuscripts. Her research and teaching focus on the transformation of indigenous art in the colonial period, the relationship between legal practices and art in Mexico and Peru, and the global cross-cultural artistic exchanges that took place in the 16th century.