TE LUCIS ANTE TERMINUM

Office hymn, in iambic dimeter, that was traditionally used daily in the office of compline. During the Middle Ages, it was sung in summer and on great feasts. In winter it was replaced by other hymns, e.g., the 9th-century composition Christe, qui lux es et dies. The hymn is clearly not the work of St. ambrose. Though the exact date of composition is unknown, it is at least of the 8th century, and is richly represented in medieval MSS. Mone cites it from an 8th-century MS at Darmstadt. Dreves and Blume cite it from one Irish MS of the 9th century, and in the British Museum it is found in three hymnaries of the English church, dating from the 11th century. Other 11th-century works that contain the hymn are a Mozarabic Breviary at Corpus Christi, Cambridge; a MS of St. Gall; and one MS at Durham. It is found in the Roman Breviary of Venice (1478) and in a slightly changed form in the edition published under Urban VIII in 1632. The present wording was substituted for earlier readings in these places: 1.3, ut solita clementia; 1.4, sis praesul ad custodiam. This latter reading is found in the Grad. et Antiph. MS Nivernense (Paris, BNL, nouv. acq. 1295, s.12). The original doxology (found in MS Rome S. Petri B. 79, fol. 49, 12–13) was: Praesta Pater omnipotens/per lesum Christum Dominum/ Qui tecum in perpetuum/ regnat cum Sancto Spiritu. The current doxology is that commonly used for hymns of this meter, and was employed in the first editions of the Breviary. Many English translations have been made.

Bibliography: j. julian, ed., A Dictionary of Hymnology (New York 1957). Analalecta hymnica 51:42–43. j. szÖvÉrffy, Die Annalen der lateinischen Hymnendichtung (Berlin 1964–65) 1:95, 214.

[j. j. gavigan]