Dreves was born in Hamburg. He already had contact with Jesuits at school, as he attended the Stella Matutina grammar 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.

• Stimmen durch den Lenz (poems). 1881
• O Christ hie merk! Ein Gesangbüchlein geistlicher Lieder. (sacred songs) 1885
• Analecta hymnica medii aevi. 55 volumes. 1886–1926 (Reprint: Minerva, Frankfurt 1961; digital: Rauner, Augsburg 2004–2005, via Nationallizenz [de]
• Aurelius Ambrosius, der Vater des Kirchengesanges. Eine hymnologische Studie. 1893 (Neudruck Grüner, Amsterdam 1968)
• Schwert-Lilien. Sagen und Gesch. des Hohen Deutschen Ordens. 1898
• Ein Jahrtausend lateinischer Hymnendichtung. 1909 (2 volumes, published posthumously by Christian Blume)

The Gotteslob hymnal contains his songs:

• "Gelobt seist du, Herr Jesu Christ" (375)
• "Ein Danklied sei dem Herrn" (382)
• "Sagt an, wer ist doch diese" (531)

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz. "Guido Maria Dreves". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German).
• 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, ISBN 3-7720-8073-1 (Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2002).
• Bruno Stäblein (1959), "Dreves, Guido Maria", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 4, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 116; (full text online)

• Literature by and about Guido Maria Dreves in the German National Library catalogue
• Works by and about Guido Maria Dreves in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
• Dreves, Guido Maria on BMLO
• Works by Guido Maria Dreves at Open Library
• Index zur Analecta hymnica
• Zugang zur Analecta hymnica
• Access with national licence
• List of links to scans of Analecta hymnica medii aevi volumes in the "Links Galore" spreadsheet