Going up for auction is a tiny hymnal from 1640, believed to be the very first book printed in what is now the United States, with potential bids reaching as high as $30 million.
Surviving in varying completeness are only 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book. The sale of one of the two copies held by Boston’s Old South Church has been authorized at Sotheby’s on Nov. 26.
“The book is spectacular and arguably one of the most significant in this nation’s history,” remarked Rev. Nancy Taylor, the senior minister and CEO of the church, which was founded in 1669. Notably, Samuel Adams was a member and Benjamin Franklin was baptized at this location.
Originally, the church possessed five copies of the 6-by-5-inch hymnal. Currently, one copy is housed at the Library of Congress, another at Yale University, and a third at Brown University.
To boost its grants, ministries, and overall voice as a progressive Christian church, the church decided to sell one of its two remaining copies—both classified as being in “excellent condition.”
Published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the hymnal was released merely 20 years after the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth.
The aim was to produce a faithful translation of the original Hebrew psalms into English, as the Puritans believed that selected paraphrases could jeopardize their salvation. A total of 1,700 copies were printed on a press brought over from London.
A yellowed title page, embellished with decorative elements, declares: “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Faithfully Translated into English Metre.” At its base, it states: “Imprinted 1640.”
Historians suggest that an almanac might have been printed before the Bay Psalm Book. However, Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress, indicates that the almanac was more akin to a pamphlet or a broadsheet rather than a full book. No copies of that almanac survive today. He also observes that books were being printed in what is now Mexico as early as 1539.
The Bay Psalm Book symbolizes “an iconic piece; it marks the dawn of literate America,” states Dimunation. “American poetry, American spirituality, and the printed page converge and find representation in a single volume.”
“Nonetheless, there is something humbler and more modest about this piece, making its survival all the more remarkable,” he adds, pointing out that these hymnals served practical purposes and thus endured significant wear and tear.
In 1947, when the last copy was auctioned, it fetched a remarkable price of $151,000, setting a record by surpassing the auction prices of the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare’s First Folio, and John James Audubon’s “Birds of America.”
The book will be exhibited in various cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
by David Livingstone
