First printed book in America to be auctioned
US: A translation of Biblical psalms that was the first book ever
printed in what became the United States goes on auction this November,
with an expected price tag of $15-30 million, Sotheby's said Friday in
New York.
The book is one of the best of the 11 surviving copies of “The Bay
Psalm Book,” which Puritan settlers from England printed in Cambridge,
Massachusetts in 1640 -- before the United States even existed.
The settlers, who were seeking religious freedom, wanted chiefly to
issue their own preferred translation from the Hebrew original of the
Old Testament book, rather than the one they had brought across the
Atlantic.
However, the volume took on even greater significance, David Redden,
the head of Sotheby's books, said.
“'The Bay Psalm Book’ was not only the first book printed in America,
and the first book written in America.
- HINDUSTAN TIMES
|