Lauren Arnold is an independent art historian and research associate with the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the Center for the Pacific Rim, University of San Francisco. Educated at the University of Michigan, she lives and works in Mountain View, California. Her works include Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and Its Influence on the Art of the West 1250--1350 (San Francisco, 1999). She is currently working on a companion volume on the Dominicans in the Middle East and India before 1500 (expected publication 2009).