Blessed city, heavenly Salem

Blessed city, heavenly Salem. Latin, probably 7th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866). This is a translation of the Latin hymn ‘Urbs beata Ierusalem’*, found in manuscripts of the 11th century, but probably of greater antiquity, perhaps 6th or 7th century (see JJ, p. 1198-9). The translation was first published in Neale’s Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), in nine verses. In The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851) it was divided into two hymns, the first beginning as above, the second beginning ‘Christ is made the sure Foundation’* (the original verse 5, from ‘Angularis fundamentum’). Both hymns end with Neale’s doxology, ‘Laud and honour to the Father’. The First Edition of...