A nearly 400-year-old book — believed to be the first ever published in America — went for $14.165 million at a record-setting Manhattan auction Tuesday night.
The tiny Bay Psalm Book was printed in 1640 by puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, just 20 years after pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.
The Bay Psalm Book’s price tag at Sotheby’s soared past the previous book-auction record.
A copy of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” had held the record, after fetching $11.5 million in 2010, also at Sotheby’s.
Just 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book have survived. The copy sold on Tuesday was one of two owned by Boston’s Old South Church.
The church sold its valuable text to fund grants and ministries.
“It’s a spectacular book, arguably one of the most important books in this nation’s history,” said Rev. Nancy Taylor, CEO of the Old South Church.
The church once owned five of these precious 6-by-5-inch works. The Library of Congress, Yale University and Brown University each have one of them now.
Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress, said the book is significant because it so well captured the faith of early American settlers.
“American poetry, American spirituality and the printed page all kind of combine and find themselves located in a single volume,” he said.