The earliest known English poem has been found in an unexpected place

In the archives of a Roman library, researchers have made an astonishing discovery: a 9th-century manuscript copy of the oldest known poem in the English language - missing, until now.

The lost copy of the Hymn of Caedmon was uncovered in the archives of the National Central Library of Rome.

The author of the nine-line poem is said to be a cowherd from Whitby in North Yorkshire, who was inspired after a divine visitation.

The composition praising God for the creation of the world, was composed in the 7th century, and survived thanks to its inclusion in some copies of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, an 8th century history of England written in Latin by the venerable Bede, a northern English monk and saint.

The story of how a piece of England's oldest literature found itself in an Italian library is, in its own way, as remarkable as the poem itself.