Harvard Paid $27 for a Copy of Magna Carta. Surprise! It’s an Original.
16th May 2025
The New York Times, a Voice of the Crust.
“An” original? How does that work?
Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946.
That is about to change.
Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties.
It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.
“I never in all my life expected to discover a Magna Carta,” said David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, describing the moment in December 2023 when he made the startling find.
Not a “copy” but a “version”? What is the distinction?
What they found was a contemporary copy, not an original. The original would have the royal seal attached, with signatures. This is a copy of one of the confirmations issued by subsequent monarchs, in this case Edward I.
I wish these people would go back to school and maybe get some training.