View a video of the lecture (Windows Media Player file).
On February 15, 2006, the Tarlton Law Library presented its Second Annual Rare Book Lecture featuring Dr. Stanley Chodorow, a noted medieval scholar and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, discussing "Law Libraries and the Formation of the Legal Profession in the Late Middle Ages." The lecture took place in the Sheffield Room, in the University of Texas School of Law.
"We are delighted to have a scholar of Stanley Chodorow's stature for our Rare Book Lecture," said Professor Roy M. Mersky, director of the Tarlton Law Library. "Chodorow is one of the world's leading historians of the Middle Ages, specializing in the history of the western legal systems, constitutional ideas and institutions, and political thought."
In his talk, Chodorow discussed how the standard medieval legal texts came into being, what a medieval lawyer's library contained, and what these libraries tell us about the formation of a legal culture.
Dr. Chodorow is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego. He was the founding Chief Executive Officer of the California Virtual University, a consortium of accredited colleges and universities in California that offer distance learning programs. Prior to his appointment to lead the CVU, Dr. Chodorow was Provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 1997. From 1968 to 1994, he was a professor and administrator at UC-San Diego.
Chodorow is no stranger to library issues, having previously chaired the boards of the Council on Library and Information Resources in Washington, D.C. and the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago.