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''The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre'', commonly called the Bay Psalm Book, is a
metrical psalter A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisati ...
first printed in 1640 in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
. It was the first
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
printed in
British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...
. The
psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and none have remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived (for instance, "
Old 100th "Old 100th" or "Old Hundredth" (also known as "Old Hundred") is a hymn tune in long metre, from the second edition of the Genevan Psalter. It is one of the best known melodies in many occidental Christian musical traditions. The tune is usuall ...
"); however, its production, just 20 years after the Pilgrims' arrival at
Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century. In November 2013, one of eleven known surviving copies of the first edition sold at auction for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.The World's Most Expensive Book
Rare Book Room, abebooks.com
Retrieved November 14, 2013.


History


17th century

The early residents of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
brought with them several books of psalms: the '' Ainsworth Psalter'' (1612), compiled by
Henry Ainsworth Henry Ainsworth (1571–1622) was an English Nonconformist clergyman and scholar. He led the Ancient Church, a Brownist or English Separatist congregation in Amsterdam alongside Francis Johnson from 1597, and after their split led his own con ...
for use by
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
"
separatists Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
" in Holland; the '' Ravenscroft Psalter'' (1621); and the ''
Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisatio ...
'' (1562), of which there were several editions. Evidently they were dissatisfied with the translations from
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in these several psalters and wished for some that were closer to the original. They hired "thirty pious and learned Ministers", including
Richard Mather Richard Mather (1596 – 22 April 1669) was a New England Puritan minister in colonial Boston. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both celebrated Boston theologians. Biography Mather was born in Lowton in the p ...
,
Thomas Mayhew Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (March 31, 1593 – March 25, 1682) established the first European settlement on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and adjacent islands in 1642. He is one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published ...
, and John Eliot, to undertake a new translation, which they presented here. The tunes to be sung to the new translations were the familiar ones from their existing psalters. The first printing was the third product of the Stephen Day (sometimes spelled ''Daye'') press, and consisted of a 148 small
quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
leaves, including a 12-page preface, "The Psalmes in Metre", "An Admonition to the Reader", and an extensive list of ''
errata An erratum or corrigendum (plurals: errata, corrigenda) (comes from la, errata corrige) is a correction of a published text. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e., an error introduced during the publishing pro ...
'' headed "Faults escaped in printing". As with subsequent editions of the book, Day printed the book for sale by the first bookseller in British America,
Hezekiah Usher Hezekiah Usher (1615 – May 14, 1676) of Boston was the first known bookseller in British America. The first books printed in the thirteen colonies were published and sold by Usher. Early life Usher was born in 1615. The medieval records ...
, whose shop at that time was also located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An estimated 1,700 copies of the first edition were printed.BBC News: Bay Psalm Book: Why the £18m price tag?
(accessed 27 November 2013)
The third edition (1651) was extensively revised by
Henry Dunster Henry Dunster (November 26, 1609 (baptized) – February 27, 1658/59) was an Anglo-American Puritan clergyman and the first president of Harvard College. Brackney says Dunster was "an important precursor" of the Baptist denomination in America, ...
and Richard Lyon. The revision was entitled ''The Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of the Old and
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
, faithfully translated into English metre''. This revision was the basis for all subsequent editions, and was popularly known as the ''New England Psalter'' or ''New England Version''. The ninth edition (1698), the first to contain music, included 13 tunes from
John Playford John Playford (1623–1686/7) was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churc ...
's ''A Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick'' (London, 1654).


18th century

The expansion of the neoclassical movement in England led to an evolution in the singing of psalms. These changes found their way to America and subsequently new psalm versions were written. In the early part of the 18th century several updated psalms, notably those written by
Tate and Brady Tate and Brady refers to the collaboration of the poets Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, which produced one famous work, ''New Version of the Psalms of David'' (1696). This work was a metrical version of the Psalms, and largely ousted the old vers ...
and by
Isaac Watts Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...
, were published. Shortly thereafter several congregations in New England elected to replace the ''Bay Psalm Book'' with these new titles. In 1718,
Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...
undertook the revision of the original ''Bay Psalm Book'' which he had studied since youth. Two subsequent revisions were published in 1752, by
John Barnard John Edward Barnard (born 4 May 1946, Wembley, London) is an English engineer and racing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs into Formula One: the carbon fibre composite chassis first seen in with McLar ...
of Marblehead and in 1758 by Thomas Prince. Prince was a clergyman at the
Old South Church Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, (also known as New Old South Church or Third Church) is a historic United Church of Christ congregation first organized in 1669. Its present building was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charle ...
in Boston. He convinced the members of the congregation of the need to produce a revised, more scholarly, edition of the ''Bay Psalm Book''. Unfortunately, Prince's version was not accepted outside of his membership and in 1789, the Old South Church reverted to the earlier edition published by Isaac Watts.


Title page

The title page of the first edition of 1640 reads:


An example of the text

"Psalm 23" provides an example of the translation, style and versification of the text of the ''Bay Psalm Book'':


Extant copies and auction records

Eleven copies of the first edition of the ''Bay Psalm Book'' are still known to exist,Thomas Heath
Billionaire David Rubenstein buys colonial Bay Psalm Book for $14.2 million
''Washington Post'' (November 27, 2013).
of which only five copies are complete. Only one of the eleven copies is currently held outside the United States. One copy is owned by each of the following: A 1648 edition, described in ''American Book Prices Current'' as the "Emerson Copy", fetched $15,000 on May 3, 1983, at New England Book Auctions in
South Deerfield South Deerfield is a census-designated place (CDP) in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. It is home to the Yankee Candle Company. At the 2010 census, the population of South Deerfield was 1,880. S ...
, Massachusetts. On September 17, 2009, Swann Galleries auctioned an early edition, c. 1669–1682, bound with an Edinburgh Bible, for $57,600.


See also

*
Codex Leicester __NOTOC__ The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Codex is named after Thomas Coke, who purchased it in 1717; he later became the Earl of Leicester. The manu ...
, which holds the record for the sale price of any book * House of the First Print Shop in the Americas * John Ratcliff *
Metrical psalter A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisati ...
*
List of most expensive books and manuscripts This is a list of printed books, manuscripts, letters, music scores, comic books, maps and other documents which have sold for more than US$1 million. The dates of composition of the books range from the 7th-century Quran leaf palimpsest and the ...


Notes


External links

{{Commons category, Bay Psalm Book
Fully digitized copy
of the original 1640 edition from the
John Carter Brown Library The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The library's rare book, manuscript, and map collections encompass a variety of ...
collection available at the
World Digital Library The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume ...

Arch. G e.40
Digital facsimile from the Bodleian Library
Bay Psalm Book
From th

at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

The preface to the book

Reprint of the First Edition


1640 books 1640 in the Thirteen Colonies 1640 in Massachusetts Calvinist texts History of Cambridge, Massachusetts Psalters New England Puritanism History of mass media