Researchers Find Rare and Lost Copy of Oldest English Known Poem in Rome Library

From Associated Press

1. Valentina Longo, curator of Medieval and Modern Manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome, pushing a cart with the copy of the ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ by the Venerable Bede taken from the library archive 2. Longo placing the book on the table 3. Close of hands opening the book 4. Close of pages of the manuscript 5. Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti, Visiting research fellow School of English Trinity College Dublin (left), calling on Dr. Mark Faulkner, Professor in Medieval literature at the School of English Trinity College Dublin, to look at the manuscript 6. Tilt up from detail on manuscript to Longo and Faulkner looking at it with the help of a torchlight 7. Longo, Faulkner, Magnanti and Andrea Cappa, Head of Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room, National Central Library of Rome, looking at the manuscript 8. Close of manuscript 9. Faulkner and Magnanti looking at the book 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Mark Faulkner, Ussher Associate Professor in Medieval literature, School of English, Trinity College Dublin: “Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is one of the most widely copied works in the Middle Ages, there's almost 200 manuscripts. But the most famous two are the earliest two, one of which is in Cambridge, one is in St. Petersburg, and both are thought to have been completed in or very shortly after Bede’s death. Those two have always been very important for reconstructing what Bede wrote, but then there's a much smaller number of slightly later copies of which this is one. We're talking a handful, maybe five or six, and the fact that this has now been recognised as a copy of the ecclesiastical history will be very important for how we understand the transmission of Bede’s text.” 11. Page of the manuscript with Caedmon’s Hymn on the bottom left 12. Close of Caedmon’s Hymn in old English language incorporated in the main text in Latin 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Mark Faulkner, Ussher Associate Professor in Medieval literature, School of English, Trinity College Dublin: “ So, Bede is clearly very interested in the story of Caedmon. He includes it. But when it comes to the moment, he doesn't give the text in English. He says it's extremely beautiful, and is clearly very much a fan of its aesthetics, but he says I'm actually going to give you a translation. Now, early readers disagreed with this, I think, because in the two earliest copies, it's added either in the bottom margin or at the end of the manuscript. But the Rome manuscript is the earliest one to incorporate in the text. Prior 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 ninth century.” 14. Faulkner putting the so-called 'snakes' on the pages to hold the book open 15. Faulkner looking at the the manuscript as he explains 16. Close of Caedmon’s Hymn and Faulkner’s hands pointing at it ++UPDSOUND of Dr. Faulkner explaining++ (English) “In this manuscript this Hymns is actually given in English, it starts down here, with “Nupue sciulun.” 17. Close of Faulkner’s finger following the words as he reads it ++UPSOUND of Dr. Faulkner reading the Caedmon’s Hymns in old English as it is written on the manuscript: 18. Tilt down of Dr. Faulkner looking at the book and explaining 20. Pull focus from books on the shelf to people studying at the desk in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room