Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

s, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

in the context of European Christianity. The Reformation in the 16th century together with the newly discovered printing quickly made hymnals to a standard feature of Christian worship in all major denominations of Western and Central Europe.