Magna Carta ‘copy’ revealed as original 1300 document 📜

Описание: Researchers from King’s and UEA have discovered that what was once thought of as a ‘copy’ of Magna Carta owned by Harvard Law School is in fact a vanishingly rare original from 1300.  

Considered a key document in the evolution of human rights against oppressive rulers, Magna Carta has formed the basis of constitutions around the world. It was influential in the founding of the United States, from the Declaration of Independence to the framing of the U.S. Constitution and the subsequent adoption of the Bill of Rights. In 2007, a 1297 original sold for $21.3 million at auction.

Professor David Carpenter at King’s Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Professor Nicholas Vincent, University of East Anglia, have revealed that Harvard Law School bought the document known as HLS172 in 1946 as a “copy … somewhat rubbed and damp-stained” from a London dealer called Sweet and Maxwell. They had acquired it at a Sotheby’s auction in 1945 where it was being sold by an RAF war hero for a mere £42.

On the discovery Professor David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History, describes HLS172 as “a remarkable testament of English constitutional history” and as “one of the world’s most valuable documents”.
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