Published by the Canterbury Press, Norwich, UK https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk
Editors: J.R. Watson and Emma Hornby
This project aims to produce an on-line replacement for John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, first published in 1892 with a Second Edition in 1907. During the 20th century several attempts were made to provide either a replacement or a supplement to this work, but none succeeded. It became known as ‘the impossible task’.
The present work is compiled by a team of editors, headed by J.R. Watson, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Durham, UK, and Emma Hornby, Professor of Music, University of Bristol, UK. The project began in 2001. It went public with a launch in Bristol in 2013, a two-day event blessed by an encouraging sermon by the late Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith in St Mary Redcliffe Church. New material is added almost daily: at the time of writing (October 2024) the number of entries is over 6000.
It will be an essential reference resource for scholars of global hymnody, with information on the hymns of many countries and languages, and a strong emphasis on the historical as well as the contemporary. It will be of interest to church historians, theologians, literary scholars, and musicians, and a delight for those who love the hymn as an art form and who wish to understand more about the provenance and meaning of a hymn or something about its author. Publication online (www.hymnology.co.uk) allows for amendments, corrections, and second thoughts. It also solves the problem of indexing (the Index to Julian’s First Edition in 1892 took up 215 double-columned pages).
The following have acted as editors or assistant editors: Jeremy Dibble (music editor, continuing); Bert Polman (USA, 2002-2011); Carlton R. Young (USA, 2011-2017); Colin Gibson (Australasian, 2002-2022); Margaret Leask (Canadian, 2002, continuing); C. Michael Hawn (USA, 2017, continuing); Martin V. Clarke (British, 2024, continuing). Philip Burnett has acted as Editors’ Assistant. James V. Jirtle designed the masthead.
The Editors acknowledge with gratitude the financial help that made this dictionary possible, from the following benefactors (in chronological order):
The Leverhulme Trust • The Arts and Humanities Council of Great Britain • The British Academy • The Modern Humanities Research Association • The Council of Hymns Ancient and Modern • The Farmington Institute • The Westminster Experiment and Research in Evangelism Trust • Harris Manchester College, Oxford • The West Gallery Music Association • The Jackman Foundation (Canada).
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