Above: The Amish / Mennonite hymnal know as the Ausbund is an icon of Anabaptist bibliography. It is the oldest Protestant song book in continuous use. The earliest edition was printed in Germany in 1564. The Amish sing from the Ausbund every Sunday morning.
In 1815, the Moravian printer Joseph Ehrenfried printed the first Lancaster edition of this landmark title. Christopher Saur had printed the first American edition in 1742 in Germantown, near Philadelphia.
This 1815 Ehrenfried edition also includes stories about Anabaptist martyrs in Switzerland, dating back to the 1500s. This section includes information about the trials and tribulations of the ancestors of many Lancaster County Mennonite families, including family names such as Bachman, Landis, Hess, Weber, Snavely, Miller, Gochnauer, etc.
Above: Some Lancaster County families had brought their Ausbund hymnbooks with them when they immigrated from Europe. This heavy-metal Ausbund was brought here in 1719 by Mennonite immigrant Peter Newcomer. The book was printed by an anonymous printer in Basel, Switzerland, circa 1700. The book was later owned by Hans Brubacher (born 1719 - died 1804) of Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County.
That aggressively-armored binding has protected the pacifist hymns inside for more than 300 years.