Lost Copy of the Oldest-Known English Poem Discovered in a Rome Library
A previously lost copy of Caedmon's Hymn, the oldest known English poem, has been discovered in the National Central Library of Rome, dating from 800 to 830 CE. Unlike earlier versions that featured the poem in Latin with Old English fragments, this manuscript contains the main body of the poem in Old English, indicating growing linguistic value. The manuscript was lost during the Napoleonic Wars, resurfaced in private collections, and was only identified after the library digitized its holdings.
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The poet who composed the oldest surviving English poem was apparently illiterate, unmusical, and a common cowherd from Whitby, North Yorkshire, in what is now the U.K. And we now have the original manuscript written in Old English. To be clear, this is the third discovered copy of the poem Hymn by Caedmon the cowherd. The manuscript was included in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede, a northern English monk, and dates between the years 800 and 830. Although the two previously found copies are slightly older, these were mostly written in Latin with some Old English in the margins or at the end.
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