Urbs beata Ierusalem

Urbs beata Ierusalem. Latin, 6th or 7th century. This hymn, ‘Urbs beata Ierusalem, dicta pacis visio’, written for the dedication of a church, is printed in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 239, with the revised Roman Breviary text beginning ‘Coelestis urbs Ierusalem’ (I. 239-40). It is thought to be from the 6th or 7th centuries. Daniel’s text has eight 3-line stanzas with a doxology (‘Gloria et honor Deo usquequo altissimo etc.’). There are variations in the MSS (see JJ, p. 1198), and it is not clear whether the hymn was originally written as a whole or in two or three parts. If it was in three parts, the second began at verse 5 with ‘Angularis fundamentum lapis Christus missus est’, and...