A little prayer book printed 373 years ago became the world’s most valuable text Tuesday night after selling at auction for a cool $14.1 million (U.S.).
The Bay Psalm Book, the first book ever printed in North America, was purchased by billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein at Sotheby’s, the New York auction house. Rubenstein said he plans to exhibit the book at libraries across America.
“We are thrilled that this book, which is so important to our history and culture, is destined to be widely seen by Americans who can appreciate its singular significance,” said David Redden, chairman of Sotheby’s books department and director of special projects.
While the $14-million purchase price didn’t hit the auction’s lofty prediction of $15 million to $30 million, it still broke the previous record, which had been held by a hand-coloured edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. It sold for £6.5 million in 2010.
Tuesday’s record-breaking price tag is due to the book’s own story. The 150 psalms were translated in the mid-1600s by 30 “divines,” a group of Boston theologians who had just reached the New World, not yet called America.
The task was tough. The “divines” wanted to keep the text close to its Hebrew origins while also making the words rhyme in English.
When completed in 1640, the book, titled The Whole Booke of Psalmes, became the first ink to hit paper on North American soil. The 1,700 copies were then distributed amongst budding congregations in the Massachusetts colony.
Of those copies, only 11 are still bound. The withering texts, each only about 17 centimetres tall, are housed in elite university and library collections. Yale, Harvard and Oxford each have a copy.
The book auctioned on Tuesday belonged to Old South Church, a Boston congregation that needed the money to survive, its minister said.
“No organization — and no church — will survive over the long term if it fails to make adjustments at critical junctures,” said Nancy S. Taylor of the tough decision to sell.
Still, some church members were livid. According to the New York Times, Old South’s historian resigned soon after the vote.
The last time a Bay Psalm Book went for sale was in 1947. That copy, also sold through Sotheby’s, fetched $151,000, setting a world record at the time.
