Early Modern · c. 1645–1676
The Hymns
Paul Gerhardt · 1607–1676
What it is
Hymns of trust written through the Thirty Years' War and the deaths of four of his five children, including the passion hymn O Sacred Head Now Wounded.
Why it lasted
The greatest Lutheran hymnwriter after Luther, and the poet whose texts Bach set more than any other.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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