Magna Carta ‘copy’ miscatalogued in 1940s found to be original

An issue of the Magna Carta, which was wrongly catalogued as a copy in the 1940s, has been identified as original.

Harvard Law School Library bought what it thought was a stained and faded copy of the document from London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell in 1946 for 27 dollars and 50 cents.

The book dealers had acquired it at a Sotheby’s auction a month earlier from a First World War pilot for £42. It was wrongly dated as being made in 1327 under King Edward III.

But two researchers have now found that the “copy” is a rare original from 1300 issued by King Edward I and is worth millions of dollars, although Harvard does not intend to sell it.

David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, was studying online copies of the Magna Carta in December 2023 when he realised the version he was looking at on Harvard’s website might be an original.

A detailed comparison of text and other tests were carried out on the Harvard document, which confirmed that the “copy” was an original issue of the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta was originally established in 1215 under King John and outlined the rights of ordinary people under common law for the first time.

It has since formed the basis of constitutions worldwide.

There are four copies of the 1215 issue and seven of the 1300 version, including Harvard’s original.

One version sold at auction in 2007 fetched more than $21.3m (£10m at the time) at Sotheby’s in New York.

“My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta,” Mr Carpenter said about the “fantastic discovery”.

He said he was also astonished “that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realising what it was”.

Mr Carpenter continued: “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.”

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He teamed up with Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, to confirm the authenticity of the Harvard document.

Mr Vincent said Harvard’s Magna Carta is the 25th known surviving original: “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.”