Key Information
Register:
NationalYear of Inscription:
2016Type of Heritage:
ManuscriptNominating Institution:
Exeter Cathedral
Dean & Chapter Exeter Library Manuscript
The Exeter Book is an anthology of poetry in Old English, written down around 970 CE, and is one of only four surviving major poetic manuscripts in that vernacular. Since it is the largest and probably the oldest of them, and since its contents are not found in any other manuscript, it can claim to be the foundation volume of English literature – one of the world’s principal cultural artefacts.
