Harvard University Bought a Cheap Replica of the Magna Carta for $27.50. Turns Out It's Likely Real and Worth Millions

Yahoo

18-05-2025

A British historian may have discovered an authentic copy of the Magna Carta worth millions of dollars
The document had been sitting in the Harvard Law School library for decades after the university — which thought it was an replica — purchased it in 1946 for $27.50
The document was likely scribed in 1300 and sealed by England's King Edward IA researcher just made an astonishing discovery in Harvard Law School's historical collection — what the university thought was a cheap replica of the Magna Carta may actually be an authentic version worth millions of dollars.
The document, which was purchased by Harvard in 1946 for $27.50, had gone unnoticed in the school's library for decades, per NBC News. However, all that changed when David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, happened to notice the item in Harvard's online digitized library.
'My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta,' Carpenter told NBC.
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He added, 'First, I'd found one of the most rare documents and most significant documents in world constitutional history. But secondly, of course, it was astonishment that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realizing what it was.'
The Magna Carta was first issued and sealed in 1215 by England's King John, and it is the first known document to state that the king was not above the rule of law. It is considered one of the most important documents in the Western world and helped form the basis of the U.S. Constitution — as well as that of many other Western democracies.
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Until now, it was believed that there were only four existing copies from the original 1215 version and six copies from a version issued by King Edward I in 1300. The discovery in the Harvard Law School collection appears to be identical to the versions issued in 1300, NBC reported.
Upon finding the document, Carpenter teamed up with fellow academic Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at Britain's University of East Anglia, in order to confirm its authenticity, per The Guardian. They compared its dimensions to the six known authentic versions from 1300 and also used ultraviolet light and spectral imaging to study minute details.
'I worked through it word by word, and it matched perfectly to the other six,' Carpenter said while speaking to The Guardian, adding, 'One extraordinary little detail about the handwriting is the initial E at the start of Edwardus. The next letter – the D – of Edwardus is also a capital, which is quite unusual. And yet you find that capital D in one of the other six originals.'
As for the value of the document today?
"I would hesitate to suggest a figure,' Carpenter said while speaking to the BBC. 'But the 1297 Magna Carta that sold at auction in New York in 2007 fetched $21 million, so we're talking about a very large sum of money."
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Amanda Watson, Harvard Law School's assistant dean for Library and Information Services, congratulated Carpenter and Vincent for their 'fantastic discovery' in a statement from the school.
'This work exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard Law School Library's, are opened to brilliant scholars,' she said, adding, 'Behind every scholarly revelation stands the essential work of librarians who not only collect and preserve materials but create pathways that otherwise would remain hidden.'
Read the original article on People