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How to Craft Lectern in Minecraft

Lectern in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own block model. Holding books for multiple readers. The recipe first appears in the game's files in Minecraft 1.14.

The recipe wants 4 Wooden Slabs and 1 Bookshelf, and a Crafting Table to run it on. Read it row by row: three Wooden Slabs, then a Bookshelf in the middle column, then a Wooden Slab in the middle column. One go makes 1 Lectern. Short on coal? 300 ticks each means 43 Lecterns smelt 64 items.

Lectern Item ID and Give Command

The item ID for Lectern is minecraft:lectern. In commands the namespace may be left off, so lectern works too. Checked against Minecraft Java 26.2.

Give yourself one
/give @p lectern
Give a full stack of 64
/give @p lectern 64
Give it to a named player
/give Steve lectern 1

Cheats have to be on for Lectern to appear this way, and the same command works on Bedrock Edition, where the name is written the same.

Overview

Lecterns hold written books for all players to read. They emit a redstone signal based on the current page. Lectern uses a shaped recipe: the ingredients only work in the pattern shown.

This recipe first appears in the game's own data files in Minecraft 1.14, and not in the release before it.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with wooden slab (craft from planks) and bookshelf (craft from planks and books).

The Stack Arithmetic

Bring 64 wooden slabs, leave with 16 lecterns, after 16 rounds of 4 for 1. The recipe wants 16 bookshelfs beside it. Craft 16 clears the box of wooden slabs.

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Wooden Slab4xCraft from planks
Bookshelf1xCraft from planks and books

To make Lectern you will gather 4x Wooden Slab (craft from planks) and Bookshelf (craft from planks and books), and craft them at a Crafting Table.

The Full Chain

4 crafts deep: Paper, Book, Bookshelf, then the Lectern. All in: 4 Wooden Slab, 6 Planks, 3 Leather and 9 Sugar Cane.

  1. 1
    Sugar CaneSugar Cane9PaperPaper9Paperrepeat 3x
  2. 2
    PaperPaper9LeatherLeather3BookBook3Bookrepeat 3x
  3. 3
    6BookBook3Bookshelf
  4. 4
    Lecternthis page

Gather this first

4Wooden Slab6PlanksLeatherLeather3LeatherSugar CaneSugar Cane9Sugar Cane

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    4x Wooden Slab

  2. 2

    Bookshelf

  3. 3

    Lectern

Minecraft crafting recipe for Lectern: 4 x Wooden Slab, 1 x Bookshelf in a crafting table, making 1 Lectern.

Tips & Notes

  • Shopping list: 4x Wooden Slab and 1x Bookshelf. Plan the Wooden Slab first: craft from planks.

Uses for Lectern

  • Holding books for multiple readers
  • Redstone signal based on page turned
  • Librarian villager job site

View detailed item stats, durability and properties for Lectern on the Astroworld Items Database.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft a Lectern in Minecraft?
To craft a Lectern you need 4 Wooden Slabs and 1 Bookshelf at a Crafting Table. The pattern above is exact, so match it square by square, and one craft produces one Lectern.
What do you need to make a Lectern from scratch?
Starting with nothing, a Lectern costs 4 Wooden Slabs, 6 Planks, 3 Leather and 9 Sugar Canes. Everything else in the recipe is something you craft on the way there, over 4 crafts in total.
Can you craft a Lectern without a crafting table?
Not this one: a Lectern will not fit the inventory grid. It is laid out as four Wooden Slabs and a single Bookshelf in the centre cell, and that takes 3 rows, more than the 2x2 grid in your inventory can hold.
Where do you find the materials for a Lectern?
The parts of a Lectern do not all come from one place. Wooden Slab: craft from planks. Bookshelf: craft from planks and books.
What should I craft first for a Lectern?
For a Lectern, start with a Paper: 9 Sugar Canes gives you 9 Papers. After that the order is Book and Bookshelf, and then the Lectern itself.
How many Lecterns do you get from one craft?
The Lectern recipe makes one Lectern per craft.
What is the item ID for Lectern in Minecraft?
In Java 26.2 the Lectern goes by minecraft:lectern; lectern without the namespace does the same job in a command.
Can you farm everything you need for a Lectern?
Lectern needs nothing you have to go find: slab from trees you can replant and bookshelf from oak planks. Set those up once and you can keep making lectern.
What is the give command for Lectern?
The command for Lectern is /give @p lectern. Add a number for more than one, so /give @p lectern 64 hands you a full stack, and it only runs with cheats enabled.
How many crafting steps does a Lectern take?
A Lectern takes 4 crafts once you count the parts: Paper, Book and Bookshelf, and then the Lectern. The chain section above walks through them in order.
What version of Minecraft added the Lectern?
For the lectern the answer is Minecraft 1.14, and it is not a guess: that release carries the recipe, the one before it does not. What you see in the grid above is how it works in the current release.

Sources

How far back it goes
Minecraft Java 1.14 describes this recipe and the release before it does not. From all 163 released Java clients, rd-132211 to 26.2.
That the ingredients come back
What drops, what villagers trade and what farms regrow in Minecraft Java, followed through the recipes to see what those ingredients can be turned into.
Stack size, burn time
The Astroworld Items Database, built from the same jar.
The recipe book unlock
What unlocks it in the recipe book. Java 26.2.
The stack sum
Counted, not played: 1 Lectern per craft against the stack size.

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