- Publisher: Bodleian
- Year: 2014
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 320pp
- Illustrated: No
- Dimensions: 183x117mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.5kg
- ISBN: 9781851244140
- Product code: 512707
The Bay Psalm Book
Imprinted 1640
Intro. Diarmaid MacCulloch New Hardback
Postscript summary
The first book printed in North America, this 1640 translation of the Psalms of David was made for the Massachusetts Puritans. Communal singing of the psalms held a unique importance for the pioneers and their Psalter is in rhyming metrical verse. It was designed not for elegance but, as MacCulloch writes in his introduction, to be ‘roared out by a congregation exalting in its common voice, taking comfort from communal purpose amid a wilderness’. This facsimile is of the Bodleian Library copy. No jacket.
Product information
Full publisher description
'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.
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.
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https://www.psbooks.co.uk/bay-psalm-book
512707
The Bay Psalm Book
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/Non-Fiction/Categories/Religion
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The first book printed in North America, this 1640 translation of the Psalms of David was made for the Massachusetts Puritans. Communal singing of the psalms held a unique importance for the pioneers and their Psalter is in rhyming metrical verse. It was designed not for elegance but, as MacCulloch writes in his introduction, to be ‘roared out by a congregation exalting in its common voice, taking comfort from communal purpose amid a wilderness’. This facsimile is of the Bodleian Library copy. <i>No jacket</i>.
Hardback
0
0
add-to-cart
rrp_info:£25.00
productId:52387
bic_code:HRCF
HRCF
£25.00
Intro. Diarmaid MacCulloch
General
183x117mm
Bodleian
No
Hardback
