Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1876 — Two-Thousand-Hollar Hymn-Book. [ARTICLE]

Two-Thousand-Hollar Hymn-Book.

Burnham, the antiquarian bookseller of Boston, has a collection which he lately bought at Dr. ShurtlefPs auction. But he did not succeed in capturing the “ Bay Psalm Book,” which would have sold for $1,500 or $2,000 if the Old South deacons had not withdrawn it from the sale by the aid of the Supreme Court. The growth in pried' of old books is well illustrated by this example of the Bay Psalm Book. Old Dr. Prince left his library to the Old Smith Church, ing five or six copies of this work, which was one of the first books printed in New England, and was from the press * J of Stephen Dgye, the first college printer at Cambridge, who was brought over from England by Mr. Glover, and set up his printing-press at Harvard College in 1759. Although a rare book, it had no great pecuniary value thirty years ago, and copies could have been bought for thirty dollars, perhaps. One of the first to obtain a copy from the Old South deacons by barter was Edward Crowninshield, at whose sale, some years afterward, it was found that the British Museum was a bidder for this particular book, and got it at a fabulous cost—perhaps £IOO or £125. This instantly put up the price of all othercopies, including Dr. ShurtlefPs, which he had bought for what was then a reasonable compensation, paying,, for it, not in money, but in other books. His title to it will probably be found unimpeachable, but perhaps his family may compromise the matter by giving it up to some library without a sale at auction. Harvard College wants it, and ought to have it;the Boston Public Library also wants it to make one more in thtelistof rare books, of which it has more than one copy. The Prince Library, which used to be kept in the steeple of the Old South, is now more safely lodged in the Boston Library building, in Boylston street, and the librarian there is as watchful of .its interests as of his owni— SpringHeld (J/trsa.) Republican. l —The King of Burmah interposes no objection to the coming of missionaries to his Kingdom. On the contrary he has requested those now in the country to write to England, Scotland and America “and ask for teachers to come and reside in Mandalay. The King said he should like to have them, would protect them and see that all their wants were^upplied.”