Harvard’s Original Magna Carta
Librarians at the Harvard Law school found out that their Magna Carta was an original one not a copy of a Magna Carta . Just lately, Harvard found out that their Magna Carta that was bought for 27.50 of dollar.
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter of Freedoms”, is one of the most important documents in history. It was written in 1215 to limit the powers and right for King John of England. The Magna Carta is made to protect the people of England from the wring and unfair rules or (and) unfair actions. It was one of the first documents to make clear that even kings must follow the laws.
The Magna Carta played a very important role in democracies all around the world, with a lot of new writings inspired by the Magna Carta. For example, in the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two examples of such documents.
These days, there are only about 25 remaining versions of the original Magna Carta. These handwritten documents were officially put out by the King of England – at first by King John, and later by his son, and then his grandson.
But since the Magna Carta was such an important document, very many copies were made. And for a long time, that’s what people thought Harvard’s document was – a copy made in 1327. In fact, the document was simply labeled “HLS MS 172”.
But in December of 2023, Professor Carpenter was looking through pictures of Harvard’s documents online. Professor Carpenter teaches history of the Middle Ages at King’s College in London. Professor Carpenter says that when he first looked at HLS MS 172, he thought, “Oh my god, this looks…like an original.” He quickly contacted another professor, Nicholas Vincent, who’s also an expert in the time period. “The instant I saw it, I knew,” said Professor Vincent. “Everything about the document looked right.” After the professors got in touch with the library, experts at Harvard ran special tests on the document. The tests confirmed that it was an original Magna Carta.
The newly-discovered Magna Carta is a very important find. Most of the 25 known originals are in museums and libraries in England. In 2007, one original was sold at auction for $21.3 million. But to the professors the Magna Carta find is not about money, it is about the history and the new things they can learn about.
“If you asked anybody what the most famous single document in the history of the world is, they would probably name Magna Carta,” Professor Vincent says. He says the lesson is still important today: A leader “cannot simply go against somebody because he doesn’t like them, he has to do it using the law.”
