Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have uncovered an early 9th century manuscript in Rome containing one of the oldest surviving versions of the earliest known poem written in English.
The manuscript, now housed in the National Central Library of Rome, includes Caedmon’s Hymn, a short Old English poem believed to have been composed more than 1,300 years ago. Scholars date the manuscript to between 800 and 830, making it the third oldest surviving copy of the poem ever identified.
What makes the discovery especially important is the way the poem appears in the text. In the two older surviving manuscripts, preserved in Cambridge and St Petersburg, the poem is written mainly in Latin, with the Old English lines added later in the margins or at the end. In the Rome manuscript, however, the Old English version is woven directly into the main Latin text itself.
According to researchers from Trinity’s School of English, this suggests that early medieval readers placed significant value on Old English poetry.
The Origins of Caedmon’s Hymn
Caedmon’s Hymn is a nine line poem praising God for the creation of the world. It was written in Old English, the language spoken in England during the early Middle Ages.
The poem survives today because it was copied into certain manuscripts of Ecclesiastical History of the English People, an 8th century history written in Latin by the English monk Bede.
Tradition holds that the poem was composed by Caedmon, a cowherd from Whitby in present day North Yorkshire, after a divine visitation inspired him to sing.
The newly identified manuscript was discovered by medieval manuscript experts Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti and Dr. Mark Faulkner of Trinity College Dublin. Their findings were published in the open access journal Early Medieval England and its Neighbours by Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti explained: “I came across conflicting references to Bede’s History in Rome, some pointing to its existence and some indicating it was lost. When its existence was confirmed by the library and the manuscript was digitized for us, we were extremely excited to find that the manuscript contained the Old English version of Caedmon’s Hymn and that it was embedded in the Latin text.
“The magic of digitization has allowed two researchers in Ireland to recognize the significance of a manuscript now in Rome, containing a poem miraculously composed in Northern England by a shy cowherd a millennium and a half ago. This discovery is a testament to the power of libraries to facilitate new research by digitizing their collections and making them freely available online.”
Why the Discovery Matters
Researchers say the find offers rare insight into the earliest history of written English.
Dr. Mark Faulkner said: “About three million words of Old English survive in total, but the vast majority of texts come from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Caedmon’s Hymn is almost unique as a survival from the seventh century — it connects us to the earliest stages of written English. As the oldest known poem in Old English it is today celebrated as the beginning of English literature.
“Unearthing a new early medieval copy of the poem has significant implications for our understanding of Old English and how it was valued. 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. It is a sign of how much early readers valued English poetry.”
A Manuscript With a Turbulent History
The rediscovered manuscript is one of at least 160 surviving copies of Bede’s History. It was produced at the Abbey of Nonantola in northern central Italy sometime between 800 and 830 before eventually making its way to Rome.
Researchers say the manuscript endured a complicated journey over the centuries. During the Napoleonic Wars in the 1810s, it was moved along with other manuscripts to the church of San Bernardo alle Terme in Rome for safekeeping. It was later stolen and passed through several private owners before ultimately being acquired by the National Central Library of Rome.
Because of this tangled ownership history, many Bede scholars had considered the manuscript lost since 1975. Its importance remained unnoticed until the library digitized the document.
Valentina Longo, Curator of Mediaeval and Modern Manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome, said: “Today, the National Central Library of Rome holds the largest collection of early medieval codices from the benedictine abbey of Nonantola. This collection comprises 45 manuscripts dating from the sixth to the twelfth century, divided between the original Sessoriana collection and the Vittorio Emanuele collection, where the manuscripts recovered following their dispersal due to the 19th-century theft have been housed. The whole Nonantolan collection has been fully digitized and is accessible through the library’s website.”
Andrea Cappa, Head of Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room, National Central Library of Rome, added: “The Central National Library of Rome continually expands its digital collections, providing free access to its resources. The library has already made available digital copies of around 500 manuscripts, and is also completing a major project to digitize the holdings of the National Centre for the Study of the Manuscript, which includes microfilm reproductions of approximately 110,000 manuscripts from 180 Italian libraries. This initiative will give scholars and researchers access to more than 40 million images.”
The Legend Behind the Poem
According to tradition, Caedmon worked as a laborer at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire. During a feast where guests were expected to recite poetry, he reportedly became embarrassed because he did not know any songs or verses to perform.
He left the gathering and went to sleep, where a mysterious figure appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to sing about Creation. Caedmon then miraculously composed the hymn, producing a carefully crafted poem praising God for creating the world.
Continued Interest in the Manuscript
“Interest in the Abbey of Nonantola has once again been stirred by this ancient copy of Caedmon’s Hymn and the history of the manuscript in which it is preserved,” said Canon Dr. Riccardo Fangarezzi, Head of the Abbey Archive in Nonantola, Italy, where the manuscript was produced.
“This newly identified gem of British cultural heritage now joins the small Anglo-Nonantolan cultural treasury constituted by manuscripts listed in early catalogs and reconstructed in more recent scholarship, from the source of the Old English poem Soul and Body, preserved in the Nonantolan manuscript Sess. 52, to the diplomatic missions of our abbot Niccolò Pucciarelli to King Richard II, to mention only the most well-known examples.
“We look forward to further results arising from the dissemination of these valuable studies and from continued research. The present times may be rather dark, yet such intellectual contributions are genuine rays of sunlight: the Continent is less isolated.”