Printing the Bible: An Interactive Letterpress Workshop

A unique opportunity to encounter one of the most transformative technologies of the early modern world: the printing press. All are welcome to attend this interactive printing press event!

Join us, Dr. Noam Sienna and Jillian Sparks, to learn about the history of printing and translating the Bible, from Gutenberg to the present, with a special focus on the role of printing in the Lutheran Reformation. Explore an interactive display of rare and historic printed Bibles from Rølvaag Library Special Collections, and artifacts of printing history from St. Olaf College Archives. 

Participants will have the opportunity to print their own souvenir broadside posters and cards on two special presses: a scale replica of the wooden common press used in early modern Europe, and a 19th-century iron platen press used at St. Olaf between the 1890s and 1930s. 

Co-sponsored by the Departments of Religion, History, Art and Art History, Classics, and English, and the Libraries and IT, the Lutheran Center via the Ellefson Lutheran Heritage Endowment, and the Leraas Fund, this evening is open to all Oles to learn about the important history of printing in the world and on the St. Olaf campus, and to experience the rich craftsmanship of traditional letterpress printing for themselves.