This study offers a details comparative description of the function, forms, and rhetoric of medieval religious lyric in the two languages of the liturgy - Latin and Greek - and in nine medieval vernaculars. Basic information and bibliographical essays are provided for each of the eleven linguistic traditions considered. In addition, Diehl discusses the generic and structural features common to the poetry in all these traditions. Armed with this book, the reader will have the necessary equipment for further scholarly study or for an informed reading of medieval religious lyric.