A Sotheby's employee handles a copy of the Bay Psalm BookPHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
The first English-language book printed in America was auctioned off at Sotheby’s Tuesday night for $14.2 million, making it the most expensive book in the world. The Whole Book of Psalmes, or the Bay Psalm Book as it is commonly known, was translated directly from Hebrew to English and printed by Congregationalist Puritans in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640.
The book’s $14.2 million worth beat the previous record holder, John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which sold for $11.5 million in 2010, according to the New Yorker. There are 10 other surviving copies of the Bay Psalm book besides the one auctioned off Tuesday evening.
[Yahoo]