The hymns are intended to be sung at certain times of the day in the course of the year, being introduced with the header Incipiunt hymni canendi per circulum anni.

Grouped with the Frankish Hymnal, an early medieval extension of the Ambrosian hymns of the Milanese Rite, the Murbach hymns are preserved in a single manuscript of the early 9th century, now part of the Junius collection in the Bodleian Library (MS Junius 25), originally kept at Murbach Abbey, Alsace.

Grimm's Latin text was reprinted by Migne (1845) in PL 17 in a collection of "hymns attributed to Saint Ambrose" (hymni S. Ambrosio attributi).

Sonderegger (1964) by contrast argued that the interlinear version in certain passages does represent a grammatical Old High German text with a poetic quality and "surprising eloquence" (mit erstaunlicher Sprachgewalt).

Haubrich (1988) likewise admitted a "literary and poetic ambition" on the part of the author of the interlinear version.

In spite of being edited as forming the conclusion of the collection by their 19th-century editors, they were most likely written down slightly earlier than the 21 hymns that follow.