Dreves was born in Hamburg. He already had contact with Jesuits at school, as he attended the Stella Matutinagrammar school in Feldkirch from 1861. After completing his education, he immediately entered the Jesuit order in November 1869. He completed his novitiate in Sigmaringen and then studied at the Jesuitenkolleg Münster [de], at the religious house in Bleijenbeek Castle in the Netherlands and at the Jesuit College of Ditton-Hall in Shropshire, England. He devoted his research mainly to medieval Latin hymnody.[1][2]
He is especially important as the author and editor of the Analecta hymnica medii aevi, the largest collection of medieval Latin poetry to date (hymns, sequences, tropes, rhyming offices and psalters). With astonishing diligence, Dreves searched libraries all over Europe for old manuscripts and incunables. From 1886 to 1926, 55 volumes of Analecta were published, from volume 25 onwards Clemens Blume co-editor.[3][4]
Dreves died in Mitwitz bei Kronach (Oberfranken) at the age of 54.
Works
Stimmen durch den Lenz (poems). 1881
O Christ hie merk! Ein Gesangbüchlein geistlicher Lieder. (sacred songs) 1885
Rebecca Schmidt: Gegen den Reiz der Neuheit. Katholische Restauration im 19. Jahrhundert: Heinrich Bone, Joseph Mohr, Guido Maria Dreves (Mainzer hymnologische Studien. Bd. 15). Francke, Tübingen 2005, ISBN3-7720-8073-1 (Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2002).
