
Oldest English Poem Found Hidden in a Roman Manuscript
Irish researchers at Trinity College Dublin discovered Caedmon's Hymn, the oldest surviving English poem, embedded in the main text of an 8th‑century manuscript copy of Bede's Ecclesiastical History in Rome's National Central Library. The find pushes back the dating of English literature to the 7th century and shows early diffusion of English before the 10th–11th centuries. The digitization of the Nonantola collection enabled this discovery and could lead to more breakthroughs.






