Lost Copy of Earliest-Known English Poem Found in Roman Library

"A previously unknown copy of the earliest surviving poem in the English language has been discovered in the National Central Library of Rome. The poem is Caedmon's Hymn, a nine-line poem praising God for the creation of the world that legend says was written by a divinely inspired illiterate cattle herder in the 7th century. This version was discovered by scholars from Trinity College Dublin who realized the Roman library held a long-lost early copy of a Medieval manuscript that contains the poem."

"The rediscovered manuscript is a version of Historia Ecclesiastica by the 8th-century English monk the Venerable Bede, as transcribed by a northern Italian monk in the early 9th century. It is likely the fifth-oldest surviving copy of the work and serves as a key witness to the diffusion of Bede's text across Europe. It is the third oldest surviving version of Caedmon's Hymn after copies of the manuscript held at Cambridge and St. Petersburg."

"Those versions, however, offer the poem in Latin, with the Old English text added in the margin or at the end. The Roman Historia Ecclesiastica provides the Old English in the main body of the text, which scholars argue reflects the growing importance of the language in 9th-century Europe. "Unearthing a new early medieval copy of the poem has significant implications for our understanding of Old English and how it was valued," Mark Faulkner, one of the Medieval literature scholars who uncovered the manuscript, said in a statement."

""Bede chose not include the original Old English poem in his History, but to translate it into Latin. This manuscript shows that the original Old English poem was reinserted into the Latin within 100 years of Bede finishing his History, a sign of how much early readers valued English poetry.""

A previously unknown early copy of Caedmon’s Hymn has been discovered in the National Central Library of Rome. The nine-line poem praises God for creation and is traditionally linked to a divinely inspired illiterate cattle herder in the 7th century. The manuscript is a version of Historia Ecclesiastica by the 8th-century English monk the Venerable Bede, transcribed by a northern Italian monk in the early 9th century. It is likely among the oldest surviving copies of Bede’s work and helps trace how the text spread across Europe. Unlike other surviving versions that place Old English in margins or endings, this copy includes Old English in the main body, indicating growing importance of the language in 9th-century Europe.

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