Lapsus est annus: redit annus alter. [New Year.] In the Meaux Breviary, 1713, and 1834, this is the hymn at compline after the first vespers of the festival of the Circumcision of our Lord. This would of course be said as the last office on Dec. 31. There is a rubric directing that at stanza v. all kneel down. So also in the Poictiers Breviary (Pictaviense), in which it probably originated. Neale, in his Hymni Ecclesiae, 1851, p. 162, gives the text e Breviario Meldensi, i.e. the Meaux Breviary. It is also in the Le Mans Breviary of 1748. Daniel, iv. 319, repeats the text from Neale. Also in L. C. Biggs's annotated Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1867. [Rev. W. A. Shoults, B.D.]
Translations in common use:—
1. The year is gone beyond recall. By F. Pott. Appeared in L. M. in his Hymns fitted to the Order of Common Prayer, 1861, No. 48, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and was repeated, unaltered, in the People's Hymnal, 1867, and others; and, abbreviated and altered, in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871. In 1861 the compilers of Hymns Ancient & Modern transposed Archdeacon Pott's L.M. translation into C.M., thus necessitating many alterations. This text has been adopted by several hymnals, including Kennedy, 1863, Allon's Congregational Psalter Hymnal, 1886, and others. In these forms this translation is extensively used.
2. The year is gone, another dawns. By W. Cooke, written for and published in the Hymnary, 1872.
Translation not in common use:—
Past is the old year, now begins another. J. W. Hewett, 1859.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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