Editing Bay Psalm Book (section)

==History==

=== 17th century ===
The early residents of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] brought with them several books of psalms: the ''[[Ainsworth Psalter]]'' (1612), compiled by [[Henry Ainsworth]] for use by [[Puritan]] "[[separatist Puritan|separatists]]" in Holland; the ''[[Ravenscroft Psalter]]'' (1621); and the ''[[Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter]]'' (1562), of which there were several editions. Evidently they were dissatisfied with the translations from [[Hebrew]] in these several psalters and wished for some that were closer to the original. They hired "thirty pious and learned Ministers", including [[Richard Mather]], [[Thomas Mayhew]], and [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]],<ref name="Encyclopedia of American Literature, vol. 1, Revised Edition.">{{cite web|title=Mather, Richard|url=http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=EAmL0209&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free|access-date=2015-05-25|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304220852/http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=EAmL0209&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free|url-status=dead}}</ref> to undertake a new translation, which they presented here.<ref>(2003) ''Bay Psalm Book''. In ''Encarta Encyclopedia 2004''. Microsoft.</ref> The tunes to be sung to the new translations were the familiar ones from their existing psalters.

The first printing was the third product of the printing press in Cambridge, the first and only press in the colonies, which was owned by [[Elizabeth Glover]] and managed by [[Stephen Daye]]. The book consisted of a 148 small [[quarto]] leaves, including a 12-page preface, "The Psalmes in Metre", "An Admonition to the Reader", and an extensive list of ''[[Erratum|errata]]'' headed "Faults escaped in printing". Subsequent editions were explicitly printed for sale in Boston by the first bookseller in British America, [[Hezekiah Usher]], and it is hypothesized that Usher may have also intended to sell this first edition from his shop in Cambridge.<ref name="LittlefieldVolumes1900">{{cite book|author1=George Emery Littlefield|author2-link=Club of Odd Volumes|author2=Club of Odd Volumes|title=Early Boston booksellers 1642–1711|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5w1AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA27|access-date=15 January 2012|year=1900|publisher=The Club of Odd Volumes|pages=27–}}</ref> An estimated 1,700 copies of the first edition were printed.<ref name=bbc_lewis>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25045283 BBC News: Bay Psalm Book: Why the £18m price tag?] (accessed 27 November 2013)</ref>

The third edition (1651) was extensively revised by [[Henry Dunster]] and Richard Lyon. The revision was entitled ''The Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]], faithfully translated into English metre''. This revision was the basis for all subsequent editions, and was popularly known as the ''New England Psalter'' or ''New England Version''. The ninth edition (1698), the first to contain notated music (rather than simply identifying tunes by name), included 13 tunes from [[John Playford]]'s ''A Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick'' (London, 1654).<ref>Graham (2004, 1)</ref>

=== 18th century ===
The expansion of the [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] movement in England led to an evolution in the singing of psalms. These changes found their way to America and subsequently new psalm versions were written. In the early part of the 18th century, several updated psalms, notably those written by [[Tate and Brady]] and by [[Isaac Watts]], were published. Shortly thereafter several congregations in New England elected to replace the ''Bay Psalm Book'' with these new titles.

In 1718, [[Cotton Mather]] undertook the revision of the original ''Bay Psalm Book'' which he had studied since youth. Two subsequent revisions were published in 1752, by [[John Barnard (American clergyman)|John Barnard]] of Marblehead and in 1758 by [[Thomas Prince (historian)|Thomas Prince]]. Prince was a clergyman at the [[Old South Church]] in Boston. He convinced the members of the congregation of the need to produce a revised, more scholarly, edition of the ''Bay Psalm Book''. However, Prince's version was not accepted outside of his membership and in 1789, the Old South Church reverted to the earlier edition published by Isaac Watts.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Turner|first=M|year=1972|title=Three Eighteenth-Century Revisions of the Bay Psalm Book|journal=The New England Quarterly|volume=45|issue=2|pages=270–277|doi=10.2307/364760|jstor=364760}}</ref>