Oldest English Poem Discovered in Rome Manuscript

Researchers in Ireland have unearthed a significant find, identifying what is believed to be the oldest surviving English poem, "Caedmon's Hymn," within a 9th-century manuscript housed in Rome. The discovery, described as "extraordinary" and "speechless" by those involved, places the poem three centuries earlier than previously known copies.

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We were extremely surprised. We were speechless. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we first saw that.

Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner of Trinity College Dublin were astonished to find the Old English poem, dating from the 7th century, not as a marginal note but within the main body of a Latin text by the Venerable Bede. This manuscript, one of over 200 copies of Bede's widely circulated "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," provides crucial evidence for the early importance and spread of the English language.

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It was extraordinary.

Faulkner noted that prior to this discovery, the earliest manuscript containing the poem dated to the early 12th century. The Rome manuscript, however, attests to the significance attached to English as early as the 9th century. The poem's journey is as remarkable as its content, having crossed the Atlantic and changed hands multiple times before its resurfacing in Rome's National Central Library, a testament to its enduring historical value.

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Prior to the discovery of the Rome manuscript, the earliest one was from the early 12th century. So this is three centuries earlier than that. And so it attests to the importance that was already being attached to the English in the early 9th century.