First book ever printed in U.S. to be auctioned for $30M

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

A book of psalms is going on sale for between $15 and $30million (£9-£18.6million) making it the most expensive book ever sold.

The Bay Book of Psalms, printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640 was the first book ever printed in the U.S. and will be sold at Sotheby's on Novermber 16.

Printed on a press shipped specially from England there were only 1,700 copies made, of which only 11 survive today.

A Bay Book of Psalms went on sale once before in 1947 and fetched a then-record $151,000

Only 11 copies of the book still exist and only six have their title page intact (pictured left)

Of those 11, only six have their title page intact, on which is written the book's proper, less catchy, name The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre.

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The one up for auction, which includes the title page, has been held in Old South Church in Boston for the last 300 years, but is being sold to fund social outreach programmes and building repairs.

The other copies are all in the hands of institutions such as the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library and Harvard and Yale universities, meaning they will not be sold

The book is a translation by New England's finest scholars and ministers who made it to be more faithful to the original Hebrew than other versions of the time.

The book was a translation by scholars and ministers which was more true to the original Hebrew

Old South Church in Boston has been home to the book for the last 300 years

In an interview with The Times, David Redden, worldwide chairman of Sotheby's books department, said: 'Its value lies in the fact that it's not only America's first book, both in terms of it being written here and published here, but it's really about the beginning of Western civilisation in what was British North America - and from that was born the story of the US.'

The sale will mark the second occasion where a Bay Psalms Book was sold, and the second time it has broken a record.

Another copy was put on sale in 1947 when it fetched a price of $151,000, equivalent to $1.53million in today's money.

The current record-holder is James Audubon's Birds of America which was sold by Sotheby's in London in 2010 for £7.3million

The book will tour various cities in the US, followed by its own security detail, before it goes under the hammer.