PSALTERIUM
Americanum
The BOOK of
P S A L M S
In
a Translation Exactly conformed
unto the O R I G I N A L
BUT ALL IN
Blank Verse
BOSTON:
in N.E
Printed by S. Kneeland, for B. Eliot,
S. Gerrish, D. Henchman, and
J. Edwards, and Sold at their Shops.
1718
References to this Psalter are hard to find. Copies are
even more so.
The Psalterium Americanum was
written in blank verse, but it employed an ingenious device in which the Psalms
could be sung in either common metre or long metre by either including or
omitting words that were indicated in parenthesis in the text. Mather
also included explanations and commentary after each Psalm. It was apparently
his hope to displace the Bay Psalm Book,
a work whose literary problems were becoming more and more apparent, but his
hope was disappointed as his version never saw widespread use.
Alice Morse Earle wrote in "The Sabbath in
Puritan New England" that she had "read the Psalterium
Americanum with care, and am impressed with its elegance, finish and
dignity."
We have managed to locate two Psalm versions from the Psalterium
Americanium, which are included on this web site. They are:
Psalm 3
(portions)
Psalm 121
(complete).
We will add others as we locate them.
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