Researchers found 1,300-year-old lost manuscript of first English poem

Scientists have discovered a hundreds-of-years-old, long-lost manuscript that was hidden decades ago.

A 1300-year-old manuscript discovered in Rome has revealed one of the oldest surviving versions of the very first known poem written in English.

A lost manuscript found in Rome is rewriting the story of how English literature began.

Hidden for more than 12 centuries and once believed lost, the manuscript contains Caedmon’s Hymn—a nine-line Old English poem said to have been miraculously composed by a shy Northumbrian cowherd after a divine dream.

The manuscript, now housed in the National Central Library of Rome, includes Caedmon's Hymn, a short Old English poem believed to have been composed more than 1,300 years ago.

Scholars date the manuscript to between 800 and 830, making it the third oldest surviving copy of the poem ever identified.

The poem survives today because it was copied into certain manuscripts of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, an 8th-century history written in Latin by the English monk Bede.

The newly identified manuscript was discovered by medieval manuscript experts Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti and Dr. Mark Faulkner of Trinity College Dublin.

Their findings were published in the open access journal Early Medieval England and its Neighbours by Cambridge University Press.

This discovery is a testament to the power of libraries to facilitate new research by digitizing their collections and making them freely available online."