james weatherups great find
ments includes a copy of Winship’s book inscribed ‘Miss Margaret Weatherup, with the Best Wishes of A. S. W. Rosenbach. March 13th, 1946.’ providing evidence that ‘Rosy’ never forgot the day a young lady from Belfast, Northern Ireland, arrived at his shop with a small book under her arm. How much did Dr. Rosenbach think the book was actually worth? In the New York Times of 13 June 1920 he is quoted as saying ‘It would not be surprising to see a perfect copy [of the Bay Psalm Book ] sell at auction for $25,000’ – yet in hindsight Wolf gave the considered opinion that this was one of the few times Rosenbach grossly underestimated the potential price of a book. 11 It is hard to believe Rosenbach would not have agreed a substantial o V er if James Weatherup bluntly insisted upon one. And what did ‘Rosy’ really think of this imperfect little book? Although according to Wolf he suggested he might give it to the Library of Congress, Rosenbach never did sell the Weatherup copy and it became one of the treasures of his private library. Conclusions Dr. Cotton only identified the Bodleian Library copy of the Bay Psalm Book because he personally acquired a copy of Thomas’s History of Printing in America (1810); and James Weatherup in turn correctly identified his copy in Belfast only because he had access to a copy of Cotton’s Editions of the Bible (1852) which contained details of the Bodleian copy. Yet the discovery of both these cop- ies of the Bay Psalm Book in the United Kingdom o V ers hope that further copies might be located there. Winship has suggested that as many as half of the 1,700 printed copies might have been shipped to London; and we know that the Bay Psalm Book was used by Scottish ministers and revisors as the basis of their 1650 Psalms of David in Meeter . 12 A further possible reference to an unaccounted-for copy of the Bay Psalm Book (which may be the Lennox copy which first ap- peared at a London book auction) is given in the Appendix below. 11 . Wolf Rosenbach , p. 137. 12 . 269 lines from the Bay Psalm Book were retained in the revised 1650 Scottish Psalter – Miller Patrick, Four Centuries of Scottish Psalmody (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1949) p. 102.
753
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter