Mississippi University for Women will resume its monthly exploration of educational topics, called “Dr. D’s Brain Jam,” on Sunday, delving into a timely topic as the new school year begins.
The program is a recurring series that provides entertaining and educational topics to connect experts with the community. Sunday’s event, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. on the lawn of Sunstroke House, home of Terry and Jami Nettles, at 523 Sixth St. S. in Columbus, will address the history of writing and will be led by Dr. Kristi DiClemente, an associate professor of history at MUW.
The title of the program is “Mightier Than the Sword: A History of Writing.” It will focus on the history of writing in the Middle East and Europe from the earliest clay tablets in ancient Sumeria to the invention of the moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 15th century Germany.
A subtitle for the program might well have been “Writing Unchained.”
While each major breakthrough in the technology of writing built on one another, the invention of paper (14th Century) and Gutenberg’s moveable-type press combined to transform writing from a privilege enjoyed by the elite few into what would become the first mass media.
“So many of the things we take for granted, don’t even think about today, would have been considered almost magical then,” DiClemente said. “One of the reasons I like this topic so much is that when we think of technology today, we think of satellites and rich people flying into space on their flying ships. But writing and the printed word are a technology that is an integral part of society. What I want people to understand from this program, in particular, is to recognize that this thing we all do has a history, and it’s an interesting history.”
Before the process that allowed paper to be made from plants and the arrival of the Gutenberg press, books were few and almost exclusively the domain of the church and royalty.
“Books were literally chained to the shelf at monastic and royal libraries,” DiClemente said. “It didn’t happen overnight, but the arrival of paper and the printing press led to an explosion of books and pamphlets. Suddenly, people could put their ideas on paper and distribute it. It truly was revolutionary.”
Participants in Sunday’s event will make clay tablets with cuneiform writing, examine papyrus like the ancient Egyptians used, play with wax tables as the Greeks and Romans did, feel parchment and quills like in medieval Europe and work miniature printing press reproductions from the 15th and 16th century.
DiClemente will bring a page printed on the Gutenberg press as part of the presentation (the press is still used to show how the process worked at the time).
Emily Liner, owner of Friendly City Books, helped organize Sunday’s event, which is open to the public and free of charge.
“I love the idea of bringing people from the community in to talk about things that they are passionate about and are experts in,” Liner said. “As a bookstore owner, this program was especially close to my heart, obviously. The Brain Jam was popular before the pandemic, so I’m excited to be a part of it as it resumes.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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