The Book of Psalm in Metre according to ye Art…

pp. [2], 144.

The Psalms of David imitated in the Language of the new Testament by I. Watts, according to the Art of Short Writing by I.F. 1728. [Spine title: ‘Watts Psalm’].

pp. [2], 1-12, 16-130 (two leaves, pp. 12-14, and the right-hand portion of another, pp. 15-16, neatly cut out, probably during composition and thus without loss to text).

2 vols., manuscripts on paper, 32mo (page size 74 × 46 mm, binding 79 × 56 mm), all pages ruled in red in two columns, shorthand text, except for titles and music on the last 6 pages of vol. I. Contemporary black morocco (matching), gilt, sides with ruled borders, scrolling cornerpieces and central lozenges incorporating the initials I.F., panelled spines each with 3 raised bands, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. Joints slightly rubbed, corners slightly bumped with slight loss to the leather. A very attractive set.

Two near-miniature volumes of psalms in shorthand by Joseph Forfitt, a London apothecary and a religious dissenter who was to become the first secretary of the Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor. An industrious copyist, he apparently produced a number of evangelical manuscripts, often digesting or transcribing theological or liturgical texts, which were referred to on his death as ‘The Curious Manuscripts of Joseph Forfitt’ and ‘a library in themselves’ (The London Chronicle, March 10-12, 1763, advert for sale). These two tiny volumes are early examples and present the psalms in the abbreviated versions by Bishop Patrick Simon and Isaac Watts. Transcribing the psalms manually into shorthand in this period (and other similar manuscripts are known) served a dual purpose of mastering shorthand with known and easily verifiable texts and as an act of devotion, internalising the text through transcription in an alternative language. The miniature format of shorthand psalms has a precedent in Jeremiah Rich’s Whole Book of Psalms in Meter According to the Art of Short-Writing printed in 1660, but Forfitt’s manuscript uses a more up-to-date shorthand system, currently unidentified among the many systems in the years around 1700 (when shorthand experienced something of an explosion in use and interest).
It was potentially also conceived by Forfitt as having an evangelical end, reducing texts in volume for transmission in portable form, though his evangelism was primarily conducted through the distribution of printed bibles among the poor. The Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor was founded by a group of London based dissenters, led by Benjamin Forfitt, with Joseph as treasurer and later secretary. Early members included the Countess of Huntington, John Newton, the Thorntons of Clapham, Henry Venn, George Whitefield and William Wilberforce. It sent bibles to poor communities in both Britain and America, the latter including enslaved and indigenous people. A letter published in 1761, Extract of a letter from the Reverend Mr Wright, in Cumberland County, Virginia. To Mr Joseph Forfitt, July 1761, returned thanks for Forfitt’s ‘endeavours to promote the glory of God in Virginia by spreading good books amongst the most ignorant and poor’.
Surviving examples of Forfitt’s manuscripts include A Select Collection of Psalm-Tunes and Anthems set in three Parts for the Voice and Musical Instrument called the Psalterer, quarto, 1737 (Maggs, English Literature prior to 1800. Part 6, 1950, £5, now Beinecke Osborn Music MS 17); a three volume Bible and Book of Common Prayer (1729-40) also in shorthand (Sotheby’s, 5 May 1981, £75 to Maggs);
A new version of the Psalms of David; Book of Common Prayer; The Book of Psalms in Metre, 1740, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University).