Harvard’s Magna Carta Copy Believed to be Fake Turns Out an Original!
David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, was browsing Harvard Law School Library's online collections in December 2023 when he stumbled on something odd: a manuscript described as a 1327 edition of the Magna Carta, described as "somewhat rubbed and damp-stained."
But as he paged through the online scans, something caught his eye—a realization that seized him: this was no standard reproduction. It was uncannily close to an original from 1300, the last officially sealed version of the Magna Carta by King Edward I. “What do I see before my eyes?" Carpenter recalled thinking. "For all the world it seemed to me an original of the 1300 Magna Carta,” reports the BBC.
The Magna Carta: An Enduring Impact The original Magna Carta, signed into existence by King John in 1215, remains today one of the most significant documents in Western legal history. It was the first to enunciate the radical principle that no individual, not even a king, is exempt from the law. During the next century, one English monarch after another reaffirmed the document, the 1300 being the final full reissue under royal sanction.
While duplicates were sent to English counties, only a handful 24 originals of all the editions between 1215 and 1300 still exist today. Of these, only six were known to have been created the year 1300—until now.
Harvard purchased the manuscript in 1946 for $27.50 (around $460 today) from a London dealer. It was then believed to be a copy, dated 1327. The document remained unstirred in the law library for decades, uncommented, until Carpenter's keen scholarly eye altered its trajectory.
He called on the services of his Magna Carta colleague Professor Nicholas Vincent at the University of East Anglia. They began cross-checking Harvard's copy with the six 1300 originals that were known to exist, comparing the patterns of text, handwriting, and physical shape.
Applying ultraviolet and spectral imaging, they revealed faded but vital details—most importantly, the stretched capital "E" in "Edwardus", and the exact wording of words in the known 1300 version.
The findings were conclusive: Harvard's manuscript was not merely comparable. It was genuine.
Librarians at Harvard’s Weissman Preservation Center imaged HLS MS 172 using a portable multispectral imaging system with a medium format camera and light panels. (Lorin Granger/Harvard Law School)
Taking the Road from Appleby to Harvard The academics next examined the document's provenance. Vincent attributed its probable origin to Appleby, a now-extinct parliamentary borough in northern England. He suggested the probable succession of ownership: from landowning Lowther family to Thomas Clarkson, the renowned 18th-century abolitionist, who might have been given it as a gift.
From him, it went through a succession of heirs until World War I flying ace and World War II hero Forster Maynard sold it in London in 1945. Harvard acquired it the next year, reports NPR.
While Vincent has not discovered a letter or deed to prove its exact route, he maintains the evidence linking the document to Appleby is a "smoking gun." More rummaging of the archive could yet provide conclusive proof.
A Document Rediscovered, a Legacy Reaffirmed Even in its tattered condition, the newly discovered Magna Carta is of financial worth and great symbolism. A 1297 one sold at auction in 2007 for $21.3 million, and Harvard's, based on what experts say, could command the same. But the university has no intention of selling. What thrills the researchers more is that the document could have potential to influence generations to come.
As Harvard Law assistant dean Amanda Watson describes it, the find highlights the important role of libraries—not just in conserving artifacts, but in opening them up for rediscovery.
Carpenter, author of much on the Magna Carta, termed it "the last Magna Carta… one of the most important documents in world constitutional history."
The Magna Carta of 1215, written in iron gall ink on parchment in medieval Latin, using standard abbreviations of the period, authenticated with the Great Seal of King John.
The timing of the find has not been lost on anyone. As Harvard is being pushed by politicians and the federal government on issues of governance, speech, and intellectual freedom, the Magna Carta's fundamental message—that no power is absolute—seems pointedly relevant, reports Phys.org.
Professor Vincent had this to say about this unusual synchronicity: "It arrives at Harvard precisely when Harvard is under attack as a private institution by a state power that seems to want to tell Harvard what to do."
From Dust to Destiny: A Medieval Charter's New Life Harvard's "tattered and damp-stained" Magna Carta was, not so long ago, an intellectual curiosity. Actually, it is a rich document of world democratic history—as discovered not by pomp or happenstance, but by the careful, meticulous work of historians, librarians, and digital libraries.
As Carpenter and Vincent set out to make a personal visit to Harvard this June, they anticipate the document to be published soon, calling out the citizens to be not only looking towards the past but towards the duties of freedom in the present. And what of what else is unobserved beyond the cushions of grand institutions? This re-discovery suggests that it could be very much worth a re-look.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks