An antiphoner (or antiphonary or antiphonal) contains the sung parts of the Divine Office that are specific to Sundays, feasts, and the Common of Saints. The chants found in an antiphonal include the antiphons sung with the psalms and canticles, the responsories of Matins and Vespers, and sometimes the hymns. Antiphoners were divided into two sections, the first encompassing the Proper of Time or the temporale (beginning with the first Sunday of Advent), and the second organized around the Proper of Saints or the sanctorale.
Hymns can appear in an antiphoner or breviary at their place within each service, but they were also often copied together in an independent collection called a hymnary, which can be a separate book or a section of a book for the Office (often a psalter).