An open historical red-and-gold leather-bound pslam book with text printed in black ink.
Photograph by Robert Kato

The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre
Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony: Stephen Day, 1640
Rare Book Division

The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre

The 1640 edition of this work, better known as the Bay Psalm Book, has the distinction of being the first book printed in the English colonies. Published in an edition of as many as 1,700 copies, only 11 are now known to survive, and only five of those are complete.



Despite its many typographical errors and lack of aesthetics, this book’s importance cannot be overstated. It represents the early introduction of printing into the English colonies, and in turn reflects the importance that the Puritans placed on reading and education—and, somewhat later, on the concepts of freely available information, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. All of these principles fed into the revolutionary impulse that gave rise 136 years later to the United States of America.

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