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USA Today
15-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
Harvard bought a Magna Carta copy for $27. It turned out to be an original from 1300.
Harvard bought a Magna Carta copy for $27. It turned out to be an original from 1300. Show Caption Hide Caption Harvard Law School's Magna Carta revealed as an original Harvard Law School's Magna Carta revealed as an original, the school bought a 1327 copy of the Magna Carta from legal book dealer for $27.50 in 1946. Harvard Law School bought a 1327 copy of the Magna Carta from legal book dealer Sweet & Maxwell for $27.50 in 1946. Nearly eight decades later, two researchers have discovered it's actually an original version. On May 15, Harvard announced that two British researchers discovered the school's copy is one of the authentic versions of the legal document created in 1300. David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, said in a video shared by Harvard that he was looking through the school's digitized manuscript collection when he first saw the copy. "With great excitement I pressed the button to see the digitized image that they put up, and I just thought, 'This looks so much like a 1300 original,'" Carpenter said in the video. Carpenter said he reached out to Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, to ask his opinion. "I think it took all of 30 milliseconds for me to reply, 'You know what that is, and I know what that is,'" Vincent said in the video. How did Harvard discover it had an original Magna Carta? HLS librarians said they further scanned the document using ultraviolet light and spectral imaging and sent the visuals to Carpenter and Vincent. "I did check it word by word against all the other originals," Carpenter said in the video shared by Harvard. "At first sight, parts of it are not easy to read. It's faded and blurred." How did Harvard get an original Magna Carta? Harvard said in a release that Sweet & Maxwell, a legal books dealer, bought the copy at a Sotheby's auction on behalf of Air Vice-Marshal Forster Maynard, a senior commander in the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force. Sweet & Maxwell purchased it at auction for £42 in December 1945 then sold it to HLS for $27.50 a few months later, the release said. Vincent said in the video shared by Harvard that "whoever catalogued it in 1945 misread the date and therefore assumed that it was a copy." How many original copies of the Magna Carta are there? There are only six other original versions of the Magna Carta confirmed by King Edward I in 1300, Carpenter said. Of them, only five are fully intact. The latest discovery makes seven. "I'm completely confident this is an original 1300 confirmation of Magna Carta," Carpenter said. What is the Magna Carta? The Magna Carta is a British constitutional document that put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law, according to the United Kingdom's Parliament. It was first issued by King John in 1215, and an amended version was issued in 1225. King Edward I confirmed the document in 1297 and again in 1300, according to Harvard. Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at
ITV News
15-05-2025
- General
- ITV News
Magna Carta bought for less than $30 believed to be original copy and worth millions
An original issue of the Magna Carta, which auctioneers mistakenly catalogued as a copy in the 1940s and sold for a 'fairly derisory price', has been identified. Researchers have concluded that the document is far more valuable than first thought and is in fact a rare version from 1300 issued by King Edward I. Harvard Law School Library in America bought the document from a London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell in 1946 for $27.50 before knowing its true worth. The copy is now estimated to be worth millions of dollars. By comparison, a Magna Carta dated from 1297, that was sold at auction in 2007, fetched more than $21 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York. The original Magna Carter, established in 1215, recognising the rights of common people and the principal that the King is subject to law, has formed the basis of many global constitutions. David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London was searching the Harvard Law School Library website in December 2023 when he found the digitised document. He said: 'My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta. '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 realising what it was.' Carpenter teamed up with Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at Britain's University of East Anglia, to confirm the authenticity of Harvard's document. Comparing it to the other six copies from 1300, it was confirmed to be an original becoming one of only 25 known surviving Magna Carta, according to Prof Vincent. 'The comparison I would draw is the rarest painter known to everybody is Vermeer,' he said. 'There are I think, it's disputed, there are over 30 Vermeer paintings in existence and yet he is seen as the rarest painter in history. 'There are only now 25 of these Magna Carta originals. 'It is an extraordinary thing for anyone to possess.' Amanda Watson, of Harvard Law School, congratulated the two professors on the 'fantastic discovery' and said: 'This work exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard Law Library's, are opened to brilliant scholars.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Magna Carta 'copy' sold for $27 found to be priceless original
A document bought in 1946 for $27.50 has been confirmed as an original royal issuing of Magna Carta potentially worth millions. Harvard Law School purchased the copy in 1946, completely unaware that it was in fact a priceless original. London booksellers Sweet & Maxwell had previously bought the document from First World War flying ace Air Vice-Marshal Forster 'Sammy' Maynard for £42. For context, an issuing of Magna Carta sold at Sotheby's in 2007 commanded a price of some $21 million. READ MORE: Dad slit throats of his kids to prevent their screams after being 'caught red-handed' READ MORE: Where failed Soviet spacecraft hit as it crashed back to Earth after 53 years in space Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE At its cataloguing in 1946 the document was believed to be a copy made in 1327, and described as "somewhat rubbed and damp-stained." Tests were carried out on the document including a comparison of the handwriting and the text, as well as scans using UV light and multi-spectral imaging. These confirmed that it was indeed the real deal, becoming only the 25th original issuing of Magna Carta by an English king known to still exist. For comparison the Gutenberg Bible, one of the most highly sought after books in the world, has 49 copies in existence, while around 235 first folios of Shakespeare are thought to survive. The task to identify the document was undertaken by Professors David Carpenter of King's College London and Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia. 'Harvard's Magna Carta deserves celebration, not as some mere copy, stained and faded, but as an original of one of the most significant documents in world constitutional history, a cornerstone of freedoms past, present and yet to be won,' said Prof Carpenter. Prof Vicent highlighted just how rare the extraordinary document actually is. 'The comparison I would draw is the rarest painter known to everybody is Vermeer,' he said. 'There are I think, it's disputed, there are over 30 Vermeer paintings in existence and yet he is seen as the rarest painter in history. 'There are only now 25 of these Magna Carta originals. It is an extraordinary thing for anyone to possess.' Magna Carta was first signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215 after a years-long war against his own barons. Despite King John, known as "Lackland" due to his territorial losses, trying to walk back on the document just weeks later his son Henry III would reissue it during his own reign. Successive kings would then issue their own hand-copied originals of Magna Carta. The last of these was commissioned by Edward I in 1300, and it's this last original issuing of the charter that the Harvard document was found to be. The version issued by Henry III in 1225 would become the "definitive" text of Magna Carta, a charter which laid out key legal principles that would become foundational to UK law. "Whenever in the 13th Century there was a dispute between the king and the nation, kings reissued Magna Carta on at least three occasions after 1225," said Prof Vincent. This could have been a way for the king to try to placate any unruly barons by reaffirming the crown's commitment to the charter, which limited the crown's power and protected barons' interests. 'This one (Harvard's Magna Carta), the 1300 issue, is the last time it was issued as a single sheet document under the king's seal as an official endorsement of the settlement of Magna Carta, said Prof Vincent. He added: 'Every county of England would originally have had a Magna Carta of each of those issues." As for how the priceless document was mistaken for a later copy, Prof Vincent said: 'I think everyone was knackered at the end of the Second World War. 'I think whoever read it at Sotheby's and looked at it, I suspect what they thought was 'oh it can't be an original Magna Carta because we'd know about it'. 'They misread the date, they got the wrong king. They catalogued it as if it was a charter of Edward III, but in fact it's Edward I. 'For an amateur that's a fairly easy mistake to make."
