By precepts taught of ages past

By precepts taught of ages past. Latin, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), altered by the compilers of A&M (1861).   This is a translation of a Lenten hymn, ‘Ex more docti mystico’, found in a British Museum MS (Vesp.D.xii.f.54) and in a Durham Cathedral 11th-Century Psalter (see JJ, p. 359, and Inge Milfull, 1996). This was translated by Edward Caswall* and John David Chambers*, among others (see JJ, p. 359). Neale’s translation, from the Hymnal Noted Part II (1854), formed the basis of the text used by the compilers of the First Edition of A&M, with the first line as above. In many of the stanzas, apart from the first, the compilers kept Neale’s opening but simplified...