Facts about The Bay Psalm Book

1. 05

   Commissioned for use in Puritan congregational worship, the Bay Psalm Book was intended to provide more literal psalm translations for singing in church services.

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2. 04

   Only eleven copies of the Bay Psalm Book are known to survive today, making it an extraordinarily rare artifact of early American printing.

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3. 03

   Puritan ministers including Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld translated the Bay Psalm Book directly from Hebrew scripture rather than existing English versions.

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4. 02

   A copy of the Bay Psalm Book sold at auction in 2013 for over $14 million, making it one of the most expensive printed books ever sold.

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5. 01

   Printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Bay Psalm Book is considered the first book printed in British North America.

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