JESU DULCIS MEMORIA ((Testi! the very thought of thee)), the first line of a poem dating from the 12th century. In the earliest manuscript it consists of 42 stanzas of four lines each with a single rhythmic scheme for each stanza. Twelve stanzas of this poem have been taken to form three hymns of the Office of the Holy Name in the Roman Breviary, namely, dulcis memoria' (Vespers), (Testi rex admirabilis' (Matins) and decus angel icum' (Lauds). The (Dictionary of Hymn ology' (1892) states that "this hymn has been (and there seems little reason to doubt, cor rectly) ascribed to Saint Bernard and there are many parallels to it in his prose works, espe cially that on the Canticles. It has been vari ously dated 1130, 1140 or 1153, but as positive proof is lacking that it is unquestionably the work of Saint Bernard, it is manifestly im possible to fix a date for its composition? Al though Dorn Gueranger contends that there are `incontestable manuscripts') to prove that the three hymns of the Holy Name were written by a Benedictine abbess of the 14th century, he does not give the date and location of these manuscripts, and the existence of the 12th cen tury manuscript seems to preclude that pcissi bility. Hymnologists of the present day, in
cluding Schaff, Trench, March and Duffield, seem to be unanimous in following the tradition of Saint Bernard's authorship. Mearns in the second edition of the 'Dictionary of Hym nology' (London 1907) retains this opinion as correct. The (Jesu dulcis memoria' has been translated into English many times notably by Bagshawe, by Donahoe and by Caswall, the latter's being perhaps the best known of the English translations. A fine translation, pre serving the metre and rhymic scheme of the original, was published by Hugh T. Henry in the American Ecclesiastical Review (January 1900).