1741 BAY PSALMS New England MATHER Holy Bible COLONIAL American GRAY Reed TURNER

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This is one of the most amazing books I have truly ever owned. This was a special treat...upon examination of this c1756 English Bible, I noted that the Psalms appended in the back bore a line that crowns this to be a legendary Colo nial American relic ......as I read across the last line of the title, " Especially NEW ENGLAND ..." This means...that this rare Thomas Baskett Bible contains the LEGENDARY BAY PSALMS, PRINTED FOR COLONIAL AMERICAN USE IN THE YEAR OF 1741, BY NONE OTHER THAN RICHARD MATHER!!! This could mean many things...for there is a certain lore about a Baskett printed Bible that could have originated in Boston itself in the 1740s...this legend even ticked such bibliophiles as Isaiah Thomas! Nothing has ever been proven in this debate, so again, this leaves a very slim chance that this could be a printing from the colonies that even PROCEEDED THE AIKEN BIBLE, the Bible commonly recognized as the first actual American English printed Bible! See the debate the the rear . One cannot argue what is fact, that this auction is for a c1756 Thomas Baskett Bible in the smaller size of Measures 6.25 "x2 1/2"x4". the Psalms are the 18th Edition of the infamous 'Bay Psalms,' with the title reading as follows, with the use of the F instead of S as issued: The Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament, Faithfully Translated into English Metre, For the Ufe, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints in Publick and Private, efpecially in NEW ENGLAND The Eighteenth Edition. Edinburgh: printed by Richard Wa tkins, One of His Majest y's P rinters: MDCCXLI (1741). So, we still stand aside from the fact that this is legendary...and valuable (both historically and financially) The Edinburgh imprints are especially of note, as many trusted the Scottish printers in the Colonies over the brutal English imprints.Condition: The Bible shows some rubbing to the outside extremities, but remains well kept. Spine w/ raised bands, and although the joints have split, the hinges and boards firmly attached. The inside pastedowns of the boards carry pasted down leaves from a similar Bible, as well as a some inscriptions on the first and last EPs by the Gray and Reed families, from the 1750s-early 1800s . It seems like the family started with benjamin Gray in New Jersey in the early 1700s, mending into the Reed family in the 1760s in Hardy County, WVA, then finally migrating to Grant County, Wisconsin in the mid 1800s and marrying into the Turner family. Interestingly, on the rear of the Bay Psalms title, we see Benjamin Gray, his book, 1756, bought,' probably dating the Bibles publication near this time. The Title pages for both the Old Testament and the New are lacking, but the Bible text remains complete, beginning with a portion of the James dedication, then the first page of Genesis. The Bible is complete with minor to moderate browning and a few spot stains, as well as a few small tears and some lighter edgewear. There is more genealogy in the rear, as well as some news cut outs and a few small pics of family, as shown. The Actual Psalms are nearly complete, carrying through leaf signature G, Psalm 141, which has partially detached, and the last few leaves missing (37 leaves present).more pics- /baypsalms1741 This is a once in a lifetime chance. Make this yours. DEBATE: "But when we seek the first Bible printed in America in the English language, the fun begins. It is clear that as early as 1688 William Bradford, the Philadelphia printer, issued a prospectus proposing thereby to print a “large Bible” (Evans, 441) But nothing came of the plan. Again in 1770, John Fleeming, the Boston printer, issued a prospectus for his production of “The first Bible ever printed in America,” in which he states with emphasis that it “is the first undertaking of the kind EVER attempted in AMERICA.” (John Wright, Early Bibles of America, 1894, p. 52.) We come next to Robert Aitken’s edition of a translation of the Bible into English, which wa... read more

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