Trinity College Dublin scholars have uncovered a lost manuscript of Caedmon's Hymn, the earliest surviving poem in the English language, at the National Central Library of Rome. The seventh-century poem, composed by a Northumbrian cattle herder, was recorded by the Venerable Bede in the eighth century. The newly discovered Old English transcription is believed to have been copied by a monk in northern Italy between AD 800 and 830.
A Remarkable Discovery
Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Trinity's School of English identified the manuscript during their research. "When we saw it we looked at each other and I said, 'No one knows about this'," Magnanti said. "To make sure I wasn't dreaming I double-checked the catalogues and there was no mention of it. It was a huge surprise, a very good one."
The Rome copy is the third oldest surviving text of the poem, following older copies at Cambridge and St Petersburg. Unlike those versions, which contain the poem in Latin with Old English added in margins, the Rome manuscript includes the Old English version in the main body. This reflects the growing status of the English language in the ninth century, according to Faulkner. "The absence of the poem would have been felt by the readers, I think, and so that's why it goes in."
Linguistic Significance
The poem is punctuated with a full stop after every word, indicating that word spacing was a relatively new invention. Faulkner noted, "It is part of the early development of ways of dividing words and shows text starting to come towards the presentation of English that we know today." The findings are detailed in Early Medieval England and its Neighbours, an open-access journal published by Cambridge University Press.
Historical Context
According to Bede, Caedmon was an illiterate cattle herder at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire who received a divine visitation inspiring him to compose the hymn praising God for creation. Bede included a Latin translation in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People but omitted the original Old English. Within a century, a monk at the Abbey of Nonantola in northern Italy included the Old English version, demonstrating how early readers valued English poetry.
Magnanti, an expert in medieval manuscripts, prompted the National Central Library in Rome to check its archives after encountering conflicting evidence about a copy in Rome. The library located, digitised, and emailed pages containing the poem. "This discovery is a testament to the power of libraries to facilitate new research by digitising their collections and making them freely available online," she said.
Future Research
Andrea Cappa, head of manuscripts and rare books at the Rome library, said the institution is digitising holdings from Italy's National Centre for the Study of the Manuscript, giving researchers access to over 40 million images. Riccardo Fangarezzi, head of archives at the Abbey of Nonantola, expressed hope for further discoveries: "The present times may be rather dark, yet such intellectual contributions are genuine rays of sunlight: the continent is less isolated."
Poet Paul Muldoon translated Caedmon's Hymn into contemporary English in a 2016 anthology. The opening lines read: "Now we must praise to the skies, the Keeper of the heavenly kingdom, The might of the Measurer, all he has in mind, The work of the Father of Glory, of all manner of marvel."
