The following essay focuses on the collaboration of Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins to produce the psalter of the Church of England.

The Sternhold and Hopkins psalter passed through more than 150 editions from its genesis in the days of Edward VI through the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. By the time of its last printing in the nineteenth century, more than 600 editions had appeared. It served as the unofficial songbook of the Church of England, falling within the allowed usage at the end of morning and evening prayer under the queen's injunctions but never receiving official sanction for use within the services themselves. Sternhold could not have foreseen the tremendous popularity of his verses which had their genesis as poetry for the court. The many editions constitute the major surviving element of the lives of the otherwise obscure authors of the metrical psalter.

Neither the place...