Lost copy of seventh-century poem in Old English discovered at Rome library

A lost copy of a poem composed in the seventh century by a Northumbrian cattle herder – the earliest surviving poem in the English language – has been discovered in Rome. Scholars from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) uncovered the manuscript that contains Caedmon’s Hymn at the National Central Library of Rome. Bede , the medieval theologian revered as the father of English history, recorded the nine-line poem in the eighth century. …