A Magna Carta copy that was bought for just £7 is now believed to be a genuine version and is considered “one of the world’s most valuable documents”, UK academics have said.
Harvard Law School Library bought the document from a London book dealers in 1946, where it was described as a “copy… made in 1327… somewhat rubbed and damp-stained”.
The institution paid $27.50 for the copy (£7 today). A month earlier, an RAF veteran had sold it to the London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell for £42.
Now, new analysis by King’s College London and the University of East Anglia has found the handwriting, sizing and elongated letters are all consistent with the original.
The institution paid $27.50 cents for the copy (£7 today)
Harvard Law School
The discovery means that the document is just one of seven issued in 1300 that still survive.
“This is a fantastic discovery,” said Prof David Carpenter from King's College London, who was looking at online copies of the Magna Carta in December 2023 when he realised the one he might be looking at could be an original.
“It is the last Magna Carta... [and it] 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.”
Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, used a battery of tests to establish the authenticity of the document, known as HLS MS 172.
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“Using spectral imaging and ultraviolet light, because in places the condition isn’t very good, I worked through it word by word and it matched perfectly to the other six,” Carpenter said.
“One extraordinary little detail about the handwriting is the initial E at the start of Edwardus. The next letter – the D – of Edwardus is also a capital, which is quite unusual. And yet you find that capital D in one of the other six originals.”
Vincent said Harvard’s Magna Carta is the 25th known surviving Magna Carta original.
Discussing the document’s value today, Vincent said: “I would hesitate to suggest a figure, but the 1297 Magna Carta that sold at auction in New York in 2007 fetched $21m [about £10.5m at the time], so we're talking about a very large sum of money.”
Harvard has said it does not intend to sell it, and its professors are hopeful that it will soon be displayed to the public.
Harvard has said it does not intend to sell it, and its professors are hopeful that it will soon be displayed to the public
PAAmanda Watson, Harvard Law School’s assistant dean for library and information services, said: “Congratulations to Professors Carpenter and Vincent on their fantastic discovery.
“This work exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard’s, are opened to brilliant scholars.”
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.
Whilst the first version was annulled, it was reissued by successive kings up until Edward I in 1300. This means “there may have been 200 originals”, Vincent said.
It promises protection of church rights, limits on taxes and access to impartial justice and has influenced the framing of constitutions around the world.
