Bay Psalm Book 1640
Bay Psalm Book 1640 pages; First book printed in what is now the United States.
Author: Psalm
Sold for: USD 14.2 million
Auction house: Sotheby's auction
Sale date: November 2013
Seller: Boston's Old South Church
Buyer: American financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in British North America. The book is a metrical Psalter, first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Psalms in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and not one has remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived (for instance, "Old 100th"). However, its production, just 20 years after the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century. One of eleven known surviving copies of the first edition sold at auction in November 2013 for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.