A manuscript discovered in Rome has revealed a rare early copy of Cædmon’s Hymn, the oldest known poem in the English language. Dating to the early ninth century, the text offers new insight into how English literature was preserved and valued in the Middle Ages.
Historians from Trinity College Dublin have identified the manuscript, now held at the National Central Library of Rome, which includes the Old English poem within a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Their research has now been published in the journal Early Medieval England and its Neighbours.
Rediscovery Through Digitisation
Elisabetta Magnanti – photo courtesy Trinity College Dublin
Dating from between 800 and 830, the manuscript had long been lost to scholars, with even the library holding it denying they had it. However, Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Trinity College Dublin asked the librarians to search for it again and, once rediscovered, it was digitized in May 2025.
“I came across conflicting references to Bede’s History in Rome, some pointing to its existence and some indicating it was lost,” Magnanti explains. “When its existence was confirmed by the library and the manuscript was digitised 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 digitisation has allowed two researchers in Ireland to recognise 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 digitising their collections and making them freely available online.”
A Rare Early Copy of English Poetry
Photo Credit: Rome, National Central Library, MS. Vitt. Em. 1452, f. 122v – detail
The manuscript forms part of a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in Latin in the eighth century. Alongside Bede’s work, it also contains additional texts, including a sermon attributed to Augustine and a letter by Jerome, reflecting the wider intellectual environment of early medieval scholarship.
What makes this discovery especially important is how Cædmon’s Hymn appears. In earlier manuscripts, the Old English poem survives only in margins or appended sections. Here, it is written directly into the main Latin text—offering the earliest known example of this integration.
The manuscript also preserves additional historical material, including a version of the so-called Moore Annals, short entries covering the years 731 to 734. Together, these features highlight how texts were transmitted, copied, and adapted across medieval Europe.
Why Cædmon’s Hymn Matters
Written over 1,300 years ago, Cædmon’s Hymn is a nine-line poem, which is widely regarded as the earliest known poem in the English language. The Hymn is said to have been composed by Cædmon, a cowherd at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire. According to Bede, he would leave feasts in embarrassment when it came his turn to sing. One night, a figure appeared to him in a dream and told him to sing of the beginning of creation. Though he said he could not, he began to sing, producing a short hymn praising God as the creator of the world.
Mark Faulkner – photo courtesy Trinity College Dublin
“About three million words of Old English survive in total, but the vast majority of texts come from the tenth and eleventh centuries,” Faulkner notes. “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 to 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.”
Pushing Back the History of the Text
The poem – photo Credit: Rome, National Central Library, MS. Vitt. Em. 1452, f. 122v – detail
The discovery also reshapes how scholars understand the transmission of early English literature. The manuscript preserves a version of the poem known as the eordu recension, and its early date pushes the existence of this textual tradition back by more than three centuries.
Based on this newly found manuscript, here is how the two scholars believe the poem should be read:
Nu pue sciulun herga hefunricaes puard, metudaes maechti and his modgeðanc, puerc puldurfadur—suæ he pundra gihuaes, eci drichtin or astalde! He aerist scoop eordu bearnum hefen to hrofe, halig sceppend; ða middumgeard, moncinnes peard, eci drichtin, aefter tiade firum on foldu, frea allmechtig.
It also demonstrates that English texts were travelling across Europe at an early stage, reaching monastic centres in Italy within a century of Bede’s work being completed. This offers new insight into the cultural connections between early medieval England and the Continent.
Clues from Language and Writing
The manuscript provides rare linguistic evidence for the early history of English. The text preserves very early spelling forms, including features that suggest its origins in northern England, possibly in southern Northumbria or northern Mercia.
At the same time, the manuscript shows signs that the scribe copying it in Italy was not fully familiar with Old English. Certain letter forms are misrepresented, suggesting the text was reproduced from an exemplar rather than fully understood. These small copying errors now offer valuable clues about how English texts were transmitted beyond their original linguistic context.
One of the most unusual features of this manuscript is its punctuation. The Old English poem is marked with small dots separating most words—a system known as interpuncting. This is extremely rare in Old English manuscripts, where words are usually written continuously or with minimal separation. The use of dots was possibly intended to help readers navigate a language that was unfamiliar in a Latin manuscript context.
Scholars note that this kind of word separation is almost unknown in surviving Old English texts, making this manuscript particularly valuable for understanding early writing practices.
A Manuscript with a Turbulent History
Dr Elisabetta Magnanti and Dr Mark Faulkner with the Trinity copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History in the Library of Trinity College Dublin. Photo courtesy Trinity College Dublin
The manuscript itself has had a long and complicated journey. It was originally produced at the Abbey of Nonantola in northern Italy in the early ninth century and remained there for centuries, appearing in multiple medieval catalogues.
In the early nineteenth century, during the upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars, it was moved for safekeeping along with hundreds of other manuscripts. At some point, it was stolen and entered private collections, changing hands multiple times across Europe.
It later became part of the collection of the well-known manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps before being sold again and eventually returned to Italy. Since 1972, it has been housed at the National Central Library of Rome.
“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 catalogues 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.”
Digitisation and Access
The rediscovery also highlights the importance of modern digitisation projects.
Valentina Longo, Curator of Mediaeval and Modern Manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome, says, “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 digitised and is accessible through the library’s website.”
You can access the digitized manuscript by visiting Manus Online
The article, “A New Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript of Cædmon’s Hymn: Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Vitt. Em. 1452, 122v,” by Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner, is published in Early Medieval England and its Neighbours. Click here to read it
A manuscript discovered in Rome has revealed a rare early copy of Cædmon’s Hymn, the oldest known poem in the English language. Dating to the early ninth century, the text offers new insight into how English literature was preserved and valued in the Middle Ages.
Historians from Trinity College Dublin have identified the manuscript, now held at the National Central Library of Rome, which includes the Old English poem within a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Their research has now been published in the journal Early Medieval England and its Neighbours.
Rediscovery Through Digitisation
Dating from between 800 and 830, the manuscript had long been lost to scholars, with even the library holding it denying they had it. However, Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Trinity College Dublin asked the librarians to search for it again and, once rediscovered, it was digitized in May 2025.
“I came across conflicting references to Bede’s History in Rome, some pointing to its existence and some indicating it was lost,” Magnanti explains. “When its existence was confirmed by the library and the manuscript was digitised 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 digitisation has allowed two researchers in Ireland to recognise 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 digitising their collections and making them freely available online.”
A Rare Early Copy of English Poetry
The manuscript forms part of a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in Latin in the eighth century. Alongside Bede’s work, it also contains additional texts, including a sermon attributed to Augustine and a letter by Jerome, reflecting the wider intellectual environment of early medieval scholarship.
What makes this discovery especially important is how Cædmon’s Hymn appears. In earlier manuscripts, the Old English poem survives only in margins or appended sections. Here, it is written directly into the main Latin text—offering the earliest known example of this integration.
The manuscript also preserves additional historical material, including a version of the so-called Moore Annals, short entries covering the years 731 to 734. Together, these features highlight how texts were transmitted, copied, and adapted across medieval Europe.
Why Cædmon’s Hymn Matters
Written over 1,300 years ago, Cædmon’s Hymn is a nine-line poem, which is widely regarded as the earliest known poem in the English language. The Hymn is said to have been composed by Cædmon, a cowherd at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire. According to Bede, he would leave feasts in embarrassment when it came his turn to sing. One night, a figure appeared to him in a dream and told him to sing of the beginning of creation. Though he said he could not, he began to sing, producing a short hymn praising God as the creator of the world.
“About three million words of Old English survive in total, but the vast majority of texts come from the tenth and eleventh centuries,” Faulkner notes. “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 to 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.”
Pushing Back the History of the Text
The discovery also reshapes how scholars understand the transmission of early English literature. The manuscript preserves a version of the poem known as the eordu recension, and its early date pushes the existence of this textual tradition back by more than three centuries.
Based on this newly found manuscript, here is how the two scholars believe the poem should be read:
Nu pue sciulun herga hefunricaes puard,
metudaes maechti and his modgeðanc,
puerc puldurfadur—suæ he pundra gihuaes,
eci drichtin or astalde!
He aerist scoop eordu bearnum
hefen to hrofe, halig sceppend;
ða middumgeard, moncinnes peard,
eci drichtin, aefter tiade
firum on foldu, frea allmechtig.
It also demonstrates that English texts were travelling across Europe at an early stage, reaching monastic centres in Italy within a century of Bede’s work being completed. This offers new insight into the cultural connections between early medieval England and the Continent.
Clues from Language and Writing
The manuscript provides rare linguistic evidence for the early history of English. The text preserves very early spelling forms, including features that suggest its origins in northern England, possibly in southern Northumbria or northern Mercia.
At the same time, the manuscript shows signs that the scribe copying it in Italy was not fully familiar with Old English. Certain letter forms are misrepresented, suggesting the text was reproduced from an exemplar rather than fully understood. These small copying errors now offer valuable clues about how English texts were transmitted beyond their original linguistic context.
One of the most unusual features of this manuscript is its punctuation. The Old English poem is marked with small dots separating most words—a system known as interpuncting. This is extremely rare in Old English manuscripts, where words are usually written continuously or with minimal separation. The use of dots was possibly intended to help readers navigate a language that was unfamiliar in a Latin manuscript context.
Scholars note that this kind of word separation is almost unknown in surviving Old English texts, making this manuscript particularly valuable for understanding early writing practices.
A Manuscript with a Turbulent History
The manuscript itself has had a long and complicated journey. It was originally produced at the Abbey of Nonantola in northern Italy in the early ninth century and remained there for centuries, appearing in multiple medieval catalogues.
In the early nineteenth century, during the upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars, it was moved for safekeeping along with hundreds of other manuscripts. At some point, it was stolen and entered private collections, changing hands multiple times across Europe.
It later became part of the collection of the well-known manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps before being sold again and eventually returned to Italy. Since 1972, it has been housed at the National Central Library of Rome.
“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 catalogues 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.”
Digitisation and Access
The rediscovery also highlights the importance of modern digitisation projects.
Valentina Longo, Curator of Mediaeval and Modern Manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome, says, “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 digitised and is accessible through the library’s website.”
You can access the digitized manuscript by visiting Manus Online
The article, “A New Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript of Cædmon’s Hymn: Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Vitt. Em. 1452, 122v,” by Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner, is published in Early Medieval England and its Neighbours. Click here to read it
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