Richard's research explores relationships among music-printing firms in Italy in the context of the early modern period. Toward that end, he has focused on monophonic plainchant, since this relatively stable repertoire enables more comprehensive comparisons among printing concerns than the less stable and unpredictable polyphonic repertoire. He has already located and obtained copies of every known surviving Roman Gradual (the book containing the music for Mass) printed in Italy, and secured copies of most of the Roman Antiphoners (the books containing the music for the Holy Office) also printed in Italy between the late 15th century and the late 17th century, the period of the most printing activity for plainchant editions. To date, he has delivered a number of papers and published several articles that have clarified the transmission of this printed repertoire and has successfully made analogies between the printed transmission of musical repertory and the earlier manuscript transmission of both monophony and polyphony (i.e., typesetter replaces scribe).