Rome, Dublin researchers discover early medieval manuscript with oldest known poem in Old English

A manuscript, datable to the early 9th century, has been discovered at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome that contains the oldest known poem in Old English: it is a copy of theCaedmon Hymn dating from between 800 and 830, making it the third oldest text of the poem to have come down to us. The discovery is due to two researchers at Trinity College Dublin, Elizabeth Magnanti and Mark Faulkner, both experts in medieval manuscripts, and is particularly significant because, unlike the other two oldest copies, held at the University of Cambridge and St. Petersburg, respectively, the Old English text appears directly in the main body of the Latin manuscript and not as an addition in the margins or at the end.

“I came across conflicting references to Bede’s Historia in Rome, some attesting to its existence and others indicating that it was lost. When the library confirmed its existence and the manuscript was digitized for us, we were extremely excited to discover that it contained the Old English version of the Caedmon Hymn and was embedded in the Latin text,” said Elisabetta Magnanti. “The magic of digitization allowed two Irish researchers to recognize the importance of a manuscript now preserved in Rome, containing a poem miraculously composed in northern England by a shy shepherd a millennium and a half ago. This discovery testifies to the power of libraries to facilitate new research by digitizing their collections and making them freely accessible online.”

"In total, about three million Old English words have survived, but the vast majority of the texts date from the 10th and 11th centuries.Caedmon’s Hymn is almost unique in that it bears witness to the 7th century: it connects us to the earliest stages of English writing. As the oldest known poem in Old English, it is now celebrated as the beginning of English literature," explained Mark Faulkner. "The discovery of a new early medieval copy of the poem has significant implications for our understanding of Old English and the value placed on it. 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 poem was reinserted into the Latin version within 100 years of Bede’s completion of the Historia. It is a sign of how much early readers appreciated English poetry."

Composed more than 1,300 years ago, theCaedmon Hymn is a nine-line poem celebrating God as the creator of the world. Tradition attributes it to Caedmon, a farm laborer working at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire, who allegedly composed the poem following a visionary experience. During a banquet, unable to participate in the custom of reciting verse, he drifted off and fell asleep. In a dream, a figure appeared to him and invited him to sing Creation: upon awakening, he was able to compose the hymn, resulting in one of the oldest texts in English literature. The poem has come down to us through its transmission within the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, an 8th-century work written in Latin by Bede the Venerable, a monk from northern England who was fundamental to our knowledge of the history of early medieval England.

The manuscript identified is one of about 160 surviving copies of the work. It was made inNonantola Abbey between 800 and 830 and is now preserved in Rome. Its rediscovery helps illuminate cultural relations between Italy and the Anglo-Saxon world in the early medieval period. However, the manuscript’s history is complex: taken from the church of San Bernardo alle Terme in Rome, where it had been kept during the Napoleonic wars, it subsequently passed through several private collections before entering the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome. These very events had caused Bede scholars to lose track of it since 1975. Only recently, thanks to the digitization of the manuscript, was it possible to recognize within it the presence of the Caedmon Hymn.

“Today, the National Central Library in Rome has the largest collection of early medieval codices from the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola. This collection includes 45 manuscripts dating from the sixth to the twelfth century, divided between the original Sessoriana collection and the Vittorio Emanuele collection, where manuscripts recovered after their dispersal following theft in the nineteenth century have been stored. The entire Nonantola collection has been fully digitized and is accessible through the library’s website,” said Valentina Longo, curator of medieval and modern manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome.

“The National Library of Rome is constantly expanding its digital collections, offering free access to its resources. The library has already made digital copies of about 500 manuscripts available and is also completing an important digitization project of the holdings of the National Center for the Study of Manuscripts, which includes microfilm reproductions of about 110,000 manuscripts from 180 Italian libraries. This initiative will give scholars and researchers access to more than 40 million images,” added Andrea Cappa, head of the Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room at the National Library of Rome.

“Interest in Nonantola Abbey has once again been rekindled by this ancient copy of the Caedmon Hymn and the history of the manuscript in which it is preserved,” said Canon Riccardo Fangarezzi, head of the Nonantola Abbey Archives, where the manuscript was produced. “This recently identified jewel of British cultural heritage now joins the small Anglo-Nonantola cultural treasure trove consisting of manuscripts listed in early catalogs and reconstructed in more recent studies, from the source of the Old English poem Anima e Corpo, preserved in the Nonantola manuscript Sess. 52, to the diplomatic missions of our abbot Niccolò Pucciarelli to King Richard II, to mention only the best-known examples.” “We await with interest,” he concluded, “further results from the dissemination of these valuable studies and the continuation of research. Current times can be quite dark, yet these intellectual contributions represent genuine rays of sunshine: the Continent is less isolated.”

Rome, Dublin researchers discover early medieval manuscript with oldest known poem in Old English

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