Lost Copy Of Earliest-Known English Poem Found In Roman Library

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A Roman manuscript is forcing scholars to rethink how early medieval readers encountered one of England's foundational texts.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have identified a previously unknown early copy of Caedmon's Hymn in a manuscript held by the National Central Library of Rome. The volume is a version of Historia Ecclesiastica by the Venerable Bede (673–735), transcribed by a northern Italian monk in the early 9th century. Scholars say it is likely the fifth-oldest surviving copy of the work and an important witness to how Bede's text spread across Europe.

The discovery matters because of where the poem appears. In the Roman manuscript, the Old English text is embedded in the main body of the work. By contrast, the better-known Cambridge and St. Petersburg copies preserve the poem in Latin, with Old English added in the margin or at the end. That difference suggests that Old English was gaining prestige in 9th-century Europe, not merely surviving as a scholarly curiosity.

Mark Faulkner, one of the scholars who uncovered the manuscript, said the find has“significant implications” for understanding how Old English was valued. He noted that Bede did not include the original Old English poem in his History, but translated it into Latin. The Roman copy shows the poem was reinserted into the Latin text within 100 years of Bede's death, evidence that early readers prized English poetry enough to restore it.

The study, published April 28 in Early Medieval England and its Neighbours by Faulkner and Elisabetta Magnanti, also points to two striking details. First, the poem is punctuated with a full stop after every word, an early sign of changing conventions around spacing and reading. Second, the scribes appear to have lost their place and begun copying a different text between Books I and II.

Completed in 731, Historia Ecclesiastica traces the Christian history of England from the Roman invasion to Bede's own time. It blends church history, saints' lives, and political events, which helped earn Bede his reputation as the father of English history. At least 160 copies of the work are known today.

The Roman manuscript has had a long and uneven journey. Written at the Abbey of Nonantola, outside modern-day Modena, it was later moved to a church in Rome, relocated during the Napoleonic wars, stolen, and eventually found in the collection of Thomas Phillipps, the 19th-century bibliophile. The National Central Library of Rome acquired it in the 1970s.

The rediscovery came after Magnanti asked the library to search its archives for the Nonantola copy. The institution located the manuscript and digitized it, part of a broader effort to expand access to its holdings. Andrea Cappa, head of manuscripts and rare books, said the library has already made digital copies of around 500 manuscripts and is completing a project that will open access to more than 40 million images.

For medievalists, the manuscript offers more than a rare textual variant. It captures a moment when language, format, and authority were all in motion - and when the shape of a page could reveal as much as the words it carried.

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