Researchers from Trinity College in Dublin have discovered an early 9th century manuscript in Rome that contains one of the earliest extant versions of the oldest known poem written in English.
This manuscript, currently in the National Central Library of Rome, contains the following contents: Caedmon’s Hymna short Old English poem thought to be over 1,300 years old. Scholars date the manuscript to between 800 and 830 AD, making it the third oldest extant manuscript of poetry ever identified.
What makes this discovery particularly important is how the poem appears within the text. In two older manuscripts preserved in Cambridge and St. Petersburg, the poem is written primarily in Latin, with Old English lines added later in the margins or at the end. In Roman manuscripts, however, the Old English translation is woven directly into the Latin text itself.
Researchers at Trinity University’s English School say this suggests that early medieval readers placed great value on Old English poetry.
Origin of the Caedmon Hymn
Caedmon’s Hymn This is a nine-line poem praising God for the creation of the world. This book is written in Old English, the language spoken in England during the early Middle Ages.
This poem survives to this day because it was copied into several manuscripts. British church historyan 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 it.
The newly identified manuscript was discovered by medieval manuscript experts Dr Elisabetta Magnanti and Dr Mark Faulkner from Trinity College Dublin. Their findings were published in an open access journal England and its neighbors in the early Middle Ages By Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti explained: “We encountered contradictory references to Bede’s history in Rome, some pointing to its existence, others indicating its loss. When its existence was confirmed by the library and the manuscript was digitized for us, we were very excited to discover that the manuscript contained an Old English version of the Caedmonian Hymn, embedded in the Latin text.
“The magic of digitization has enabled two Irish researchers to recognize the significance of a manuscript now in Rome that contains a poem miraculously composed in the north of England by a shy cowherd 1,500 years ago. This discovery is a testament to the power of libraries to foster new research by digitizing their collections and making them freely available online.”
Why is discovery important?
Researchers say the discovery provides valuable insight into the earliest history of written English.
Dr. Mark Faulkner said: “In total, around three million words of Old English survive, but the majority of the texts date from the 10th and 11th centuries. Caedmon’s hymn is almost unique in surviving from the 7th century. It connects us to the earliest stages of written language. As the oldest known poem in Old English, it is today celebrated as the beginning of English literature.”
“The excavation of a new early medieval copy of this poem has important implications for our understanding of Old English and how it was valued. Bede chose not to include the original Old English poem in his Historia, but to translate it into Latin. This manuscript shows that the original Old English poetry was reinserted into Latin within 100 years of Bede’s completion of the Historia, which shows how much English poetry was valued by early readers.
A manuscript with a turbulent history
The rediscovered manuscript is one of at least 160 Bede manuscripts in existence. history. The work was created between 800 and 830 at the Monastery of Nonantola in north-central Italy and eventually made its way to Rome.
Researchers say the manuscript has endured a complicated journey over 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 then stolen and passed through several private owners before finally being acquired by the National Library of Rome.
Because of this complicated ownership history, many Bede scholars believed the manuscript to have been lost since 1975. Its significance went unnoticed until the library digitized the document.
Valentina Longo, Curator of Medieval and Modern Manuscripts at the Biblioteca National Centrale of Rome, said: “The Biblioteca National Centrale of Rome currently holds the largest collection of early medieval manuscripts from the Benedictine Abbey of Nonantola. The collection consists of 45 manuscripts dating from the 6th to the 12th century, divided into the original Sessoliana collection and the Vittorio Emanuele collection, which were recovered after being scattered in a catastrophe. All stolen materials from the 19th century have been digitized and can be accessed through the library’s website.”
Andrea Cappa, Director of the Reading Room for Manuscripts and Rare Books at the National Library of Rome, said: “The National Library of Rome is continually expanding its digital collection and 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 Center for Manuscript Research. This includes microfilm reproductions of around 110,000 manuscripts from Rome. 180 in Italy. library. This initiative will give scholars and researchers access to more than 40 million images.”
the legend behind the poem
Legend has it that Caedmon worked as a laborer at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire. During a banquet where guests were expected to recite poetry, he was reportedly embarrassed because he did not know any songs or poems to perform.
He left the meeting and went to sleep, where a mysterious figure appeared in his dream and instructed him to sing about the Creation. Caedmon then miraculously composed hymns, producing carefully crafted poems praising the God who created the world.
Continued interest in the manuscript
“This ancient manuscript of the Caedmon Hymn and the history of the manuscript in which it is preserved has renewed interest in the Monastery of Nonantola,” said Bishop Dr. Riccardo Fangarezzi, Director of the Archives of the Monastery of Nonantola, Italy, where the manuscript was created.
“This newly identified jewel of British cultural heritage joins a small Anglo-Nonantlan cultural treasury made up of manuscripts cataloged in earlier years and reconstructed with more recent scholarship, from the origins of the Old English poem ‘Soul and Body’ preserved in section 52 of the Nonantran Codex to the diplomatic mission of Abbot Niccolò Pucciarelli to Richard II, to name but the most well-known examples.
“We look forward to the dissemination of these valuable works and further results arising from continued research. These may be quite dark times, but intellectual contributions like this are a genuine ray of sunshine. The continent is no longer so isolated.”
