Te lucis ante terminum

Te lucis ante terminum. Latin, author and date unknown. Although this hymn has occasionally been attributed to St Ambrose*, the date and authorship of the text remain unknown. Szövérffy dates the hymn to the late 5th century at the earliest, and asserts that it is Milanese in origin. The text became attached to Compline in the summer months during the 9th-century Carolingian reforms, and is a regular part of the New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*); earlier use in Milan may be adduced from its appearance in the 10th-century Milanese hymnals which preserve an older tradition (see Gneuss, 15, 24-5). See Milfull, Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, pp. 133-5; Analecta Hymnica 51. 42-3;...