Bay Psalm Book Auctioned for $14.2 Million

Sotheby's recently auctioned one of only eleven remaining copies of the Bay Psalm Book, commonly accepted as the first book printed in British America, for a record-shattering $14.2 million.  Since the majority of the first psalters are held by libraries, it is rare for this book to be available for private collections.  Aside from its rather inelegant translation of the psalms ("The Lord to me a shepherd is, / Want therefore shall not I / He in the folds of tender grass, / Doth cause me down to lie:"), the book is also noteworthy for the statement of Puritan aesthetics by John Cotton in the preface to the first edition ("God's altar needs not our polishings").  Read the whole story at http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-bay-psalm-book-auction-20131127,0,2723766.story#axzz2mFIFetzJ.