Bay Psalm Book
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The Bay Psalm Book Imprinted 1640
'The Bay Psalm Book' was the first book to be printed in North America, twenty years after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in Massachusetts. Now extremely rare - only eleven copies survive - it is also the most expensive book in the world, fetching over $14.2 million at auction.Worship in the 'mother tongue' and congregational hymns had become key tenets of Puritanism following the Reformation. New England Puritans were unhappy with contemporary translations of the Psalms and decided that they needed their own version, which would better represent their beliefs. A team of writers in the Massachusetts Bay settlement, including John Cotton and Richard Mather, set about translating the psalms into English from the original Hebrew, and setting the lyrics to a metre so that they could easily be sung in congregation. The resulting translation, 'The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre,' was published in 1640 on a printing press brought over from Surrey. It became known as the Bay Psalm Book after the name of the colony that was home to its translators.Every page of this extraordinarily influential book, including the translators' preface, is faithfully reproduced here, complete with original printer's errors and binding marks. An introduction by Diarmaid MacCulloch sets the book in context and explains how this unassuming Psalter came to have a profound effect on the course of the Protestant faith in America. This edition is made from the original held at the Bodleian Library, one of the best preserved of the surviving copies, despite its accidental submersion in the river Thames in 1731, when the barge carrying it to Oxford unexpectedly sank.
Bay Psalm Book
The first book written and printed in the New World, the Bay Psalm Book holds a unique place in our cultural history. A group of New England Clergy, believed led by Richard Mather, transcribed psalms into metered verse and, in 1640, printed it in Cambridge, Mass. Originals are extremely rare. With this reproduction of the first edition, the earliest book published in America will finally be available again to a modern audience.
The Bay Psalm Book
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.