Garland in the field of Latin Hymnody. ' The Latin of the Catholic Church, vernacular to no man, mother tongue of Christendom, is warm with a vitality of appeal and association that can match any of the national poesies - which by the way, owe so much to it. (...) In this case, besides the hall-mark of received opinion, one has to reckon with another sort of prescription, the honours of liturgical usage. And so we are doubly committed on that side. Probably of any alleged Hundred Best Hymns - let it be noted here that the word 'hymn' bears in this book its loose, popular acceptation, without distinction between hymn, trope, sequence, etc. - there might be fifty about which everyone on a jury of selectors would easily agree; and it was my first endeavour that no familiar masterpiece (unless disqualified by extreme length), no pious lyric canonized long sinde by the common sense, should here be missing. But, that much secured, one might indulge the hope of springing some agreeable surprises upon the reader (...). An assertion of persoanl taste has been ventured in giving prominence to poets little known (...) yet, if the case be judged sincerely on poetical merit. (...) The Humanist Renascence is our 'terminus ad quem': not that there were no more poets of any merit in Latin, but because the prevalence of the vernacular literatures (and, alas, the pedantry of scholars) reduced Latin to a medium of learned communication and graceful pastiche. (...) In all cases I have accepted the responsibility of emending, where necessary, according to the canon of probability; and this tacitly, since the book is meant for a pocket companion and not - like so many classical editions - an instrument for other editors. The spelling has been standardized for the sake of convenience.' (J.S. PHILLIMORE in the Preface, pp.I-XI).