The Bay Psalm Book was the first book, that is still in existence, printed in British North America.
The book is a Psalter, first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Psalms 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.".) However its production, a mere 20 years after the Pilgrim Fathers arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century.
Read more about Bay Psalm Book: History, Title Page, Extant Copies, Auction Records, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words bay psalm book, psalm book, bay psalm, bay, psalm and/or book:
“Then did they to Jehovah cry
When they were in distress:
And therupon he bringeth them
Out of their anguishes.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“Then did they to Jehovah cry
When they were in distress:
And therupon he bringeth them
Out of their anguishes.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“They that goe downe to ‘th sea in ships:
Their busines there to doo
In waters great. The Lords work see,
I’th deep his wonders too.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm VIII (l. VIII, 3–4)
“Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.”
—Alan Bennett (b. 1934)