The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church
Subtitle: A Study and Edition of the 'Durham Hymnal' (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: January 13, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 510
ISBN-13: 9780521462525
Subjects: Christian hymnals; Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Texts; Medieval; History & Criticism - General; Religion; Sacred Music; Music/Songbooks; Literary Criticism; Hymns, Latin (Medieval and modern); History and criticism; Religious - Hymns; Catholic Church.--Durham hymnal; History / General; Music; Durham; History; Antiphonaries; Catholic Church; Durham hymnal; England; Hymns
First sentence: Like Christianity itself, hymns were introduced to Anglo-Saxon England from the Continent.
Description: This book provides a study and critical edition of the corpus of hymns sung by monks and canons in their services in England before the Norman Conquest. When Christianity was introduced into Anglo-Saxon England at the end of the sixth century, the practice of singing hymns in the liturgy of the Office was already well established. The hymnal that the missionaries brought with them was replaced during the Benedictine Reform in the tenth century by another body of hymns, itself introduced from the Continent.

This edition assembles textual evidence of these early hymns, some of it hitherto unpublished, based on all extant manuscripts. Of these, an eleventh-century Latin manuscript known as the 'Durham Hymnal' (and in particular its accompanying Old English interlinear gloss) provides the core of the edition and its base manuscript. An introduction and commentary include descriptions of the manuscripts concerned and discussions of the sources, liturgical use and music of the hymns, as well as the phonology and vocabulary of the Old English gloss.

The text of the hymns is accompanied by a translation of the Latin into modern English prose.