BOSTON (AP) – Harvard University has been assuming it has a cheap copy for decades Magna Carta In that collection, we have stained and fade documents purchased for under $30.
However, two researchers conclude that it has something more valuable – the rare version of 1300 published by King Edward I of England
Original Magna Carta Founded in 1215, the principle that kings are subject to law, which forms the foundation of the constitution worldwide. There were four copies of the original, and up until now it was thought that there were only six copies of the 1300 version.
“My reaction was one of the surprises, and in a way, I was adamant that I could have found an unknown Magna Carta before,” said David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history of King’s College London. He was searching the Harvard Law School Library website when he found the digitized document in December 2023.
This photo, provided by Harvard Law School, shows an unusual copy of Magna Carta, ranked 1300th in an exhibition case at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 15, 2025 (via the AP via Rolling Ranger/Harvard Law School).
“First, I found one of the rarest and most important documents in the history of the world constitution,” Carpenter said. “But second, of course, it was a surprise that Harvard had been sitting all these past few years without realizing what it was.”
Check the reliability of your document
Carpenter worked with Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at East Anglia in the UK, to confirm the reliability of Harvard’s documents.
Compared to the other six copies of the 1300, we found that the Carpenter matched the dimensions. He and Vincent then turned to images of Harvard Librarians created using ultraviolet rays and spectral imaging. This technology helps scholars see details of faded documents that are invisible to the human eye.
This allowed us to compare word-by-word text with handwriting that includes the large capital “E” at the start of “Edwardus” and the elongated letters on the first line.
After the original 1215 printed by King John, five other editions were written in the following decades. Until 1300, the last document was set up and approved by the King’s seal.
The 1300 version of Magna Carta “unlike previous versions and a series of small ways, and the changes are seen in everything,” Carpenter says.
Harvard had to meet a high bar to prove authenticity, Carpenter said, and it did “in the colours that fly.”
Harvard University doesn’t plan to sell it, but it estimates its faded copy of the tattered Magna Carta is worth millions of dollars. The 1297 version of MagnaCarta sold at a 2007 auction for $21.3 million.
A colorful documentary
Another mystery behind the document was a trip to Harvard.
The job was left to Vincent. Vincent was able to trace back to the former Parliamentary Apple’s Borough in Westmoreland, England.
Harvard Law School Library purchased a copy from a book dealer in London for $27.50 in 1946. At the time it was mistakenly outdated as being made in 1327.
This photo, provided by the Harvard Wythman Center, shows that it is being used to help the librarian see details of the rare faded copy of the Magna Carta on March 19, 2024, to help the librarian see details of the rare faded copy of the Magna Carta (Deborah Meyer/Harvard Wythman Center via the AP)
Vincent determined that the document had been sent to the British auction house in 1945 by the World War I flight ace, who served as a defender of Malta in World War II. War hero Forster Maynard inherited the archives of Thomas and John Clarkson, who led campaigners against the slave trade. One of them, Thomas Clarkson, became friends with William Lowther, the genetic lord of Appleby’s mansion, and perhaps gave it to Clarkson.
“There’s a smoking gun there, but there’s no clear evidence yet that this is the Appleby Magna Carta, but that seems to be the case,” Vincent said. He said he wanted to find letters and other documents indicating that Magna Carta was given to Thomas Clarkson.
Making Magna Carta relevant to the new generation
Vincent and Carpenter are scheduled to visit Harvard in June. Magna Carta In person – and they are Harvard University Trump administration About the extent to which the federal government should have leadership, admission and activity on campus.
“Harvard will appear at Harvard at the moment when Harvard is under attack as a private institution by state authorities who want to tell Harvard what to do,” Vincent said.
This photo provided by RB Toth Associates shows researchers using imaging technology on 1300 Magna Carta copies to uncover invisible details for humans on March 19, 2024 at Weissmann Preservation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts (RB Toth Associates via the AP)
It also means that the new generation is Magna Cartafrom the Declaration of Independence to the Adoption of the Bill of Rights, was involved in the establishment of the United States. Seventeen states incorporate that aspect into the law.
“We see the law library as a place where people can come and understand the foundations of democracy,” said Amanda Watson, assistant dean of libraries and information services at Harvard Law School. “It is very exciting to think that Magna Carta can encourage a new generation of people to think about the individual freedom and what it means and what it means to be autonomy.”
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