Iesu dulcis memoria

Iesu dulcis memoria. Latin, 12th century, author unknown. This hymn is given in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 227-9, as the work of St Bernard of Clairvaux*, but more recent research has noted that the earliest manuscripts containing it are of English origin, and it has been tentatively ascribed to an English monk of the 12th century (see F. J. E. Raby, ‘The Poem “Dulcis Iesu Memoria”’, Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 33 (October 1945), pp. 1-6, and Maurice Frost, Historical Companion to A&M, 1962, p. 249). An early manuscript attributes it to a 'holy virgin', and it is possible that it was written by a nun rather than a monk. In Thesaurus Hymnologicus the poem is 192 lines long, in...