He considers Caedmon\u2019s poem to be the start of English literature.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The manuscript he and Magnanti found is one of the oldest, dating from the 9th century. Two earlier copies contain the poem in Old English, but as afterthoughts \u2014 translated from Latin and scrawled into the margin or appended but not within the text\u2019s main body, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From left, Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Dublin\u2019s Trinity College and Valentina Longo of Rome\u2019s National Central Library look at a manuscript containing a rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn, the first poem ever to be written down in Old English, at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)<\/p>\n From left, Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Dublin\u2019s Trinity College and Valentina Longo of Rome\u2019s National Central Library look at a manuscript containing a rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn, the first poem ever to be written down in Old English, at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The discovery sheds light on the English language\u2019s wide diffusion, long before what was previously understood, Faulkner said in Rome, where the duo had traveled to view the text in person for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to the discovery of the Rome manuscript, the earliest one was from the early 12th century. So this is three centuries earlier than that. And so it attests to the importance that was already being attached to the English in the early 9th century,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s something of a miracle they uncovered it at all.<\/p>\n The book had a long and twisted provenance<\/p>\n Caedmon is said to have composed the poem while working at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire, after guests at a feast began reciting poems, Faulkner said.<\/p>\n \u201cEmbarrassed that he didn\u2019t know anything suitable, Caedmon left the feast and went to bed,\u201d he said. \u201cA figure then appeared to him in his dreams telling him to sing about creation, which Caedmon miraculously did, producing the nine-line hymn.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn \u2014 the first poem ever written down in Old English \u2014 is visible in the five lines above the final line of the left page from an 8th-century manuscript copy of the Venerable Bede\u2019s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)null<\/p>\n A rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn \u2014 the first poem ever written down in Old English \u2014 is visible in the five lines above the final line of the left page from an 8th-century manuscript copy of the Venerable Bede\u2019s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)null<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Some 1,400 years later, this copy of his poem resurfaced in Rome\u2019s main public library \u2014 but not before crossing the Atlantic Ocean at least twice and changing hands even more times.<\/p>\n Monks transcribed this copy of Bede\u2019s history in the scriptorium of the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola, one of the most important transcription centers during the Middle Ages, located near modern-day Modena in northern Italy, according to Valentina Longo, curator of medieval and modern manuscripts at Rome\u2019s National Central Library.<\/p>\n In the 17th century, as the abbey\u2019s importance declined, its vast collection of manuscripts was shifted to another abbey in Rome, then moved to the Vatican and finally on to a small church.<\/p>\n Along the way, some of the texts went missing, only to emerge in the early 19th century in the possession of famous international collectors, Longo said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From left, Elisabetta Magnanti, Mark Faulkner of Dublin\u2019s Trinity College, Andrea Cappa and Valentina Longo of Rome\u2019s National Central Library examine a manuscript containing a rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn \u2014 the first poem ever written down in Old English \u2014 at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)<\/p>\n From left, Elisabetta Magnanti, Mark Faulkner of Dublin\u2019s Trinity College, Andrea Cappa and Valentina Longo of Rome\u2019s National Central Library examine a manuscript containing a rare, long-lost copy of Caedmon\u2019s Hymn \u2014 the first poem ever written down in Old English \u2014 at Rome\u2019s National Library, Thursday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Andrea Rosa)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n This copy of Bede\u2019s history went to renowned English antiquarian Thomas Phillipps. He fell on hard times, selling off bits and pieces of his collection, and Swiss bibliophile Martin Bodmer secured the book. From there, somehow, it arrived in New York City, in the trove of Austrian-born rare bookseller H.P. Kraus during the 20th century.<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s culture ministry was scouring the world for the Nonantola abbey\u2019s missing manuscripts, snapping them up in auctions and from collectors around the world. It bought the copy of Bede\u2019s history from Kraus in 1972, Longo said, and since then the illustrious text has remained in Rome\u2019s library \u2014 but received scant notice.<\/p>\n Enter Magnanti, who had spent over four years studying Bede\u2019s history and was compiling a catalog of extant copies.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that the book was listed in the library\u2019s catalog, so I was almost certain that the book was, in fact, still here,\u201d she said. \u201cI realized that, because of the very complex history of this book, no Bede scholar had really looked at it. So it had been virtually unstudied.\u201d<\/p>\n She emailed the library, which confirmed the book was in its stacks. Three months later, she received digital images of the entire manuscript. <\/p>\n![\"Arthur](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779041294_164_.jpeg\")
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