By Billy Stockwell, CNN
A rare copy of Magna Carta from 1300 sits in a display case at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 15 April. Photo: Lorin Granger/Harvard Law School/AP via CNN Newsource
A "copy" of Magna Carta bought decades ago by Harvard Law School for just $27.50 is now understood to be an extremely rare original from 1300, according to new research.
British historians were able to verify the document's true authenticity after an academic stumbled across the item while looking through Harvard Law School's online archives.
"I was just working at home… looking for unofficial copies of Magna Carta and finding quite a lot of them," David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, told CNN Thursday, recounting the moment he made the discovery.
"I finally came to Harvard Law School manuscript number 172, clicked on that, expecting to see a statute book. And what I saw… was an original of the 1300 Magna Carta," Carpenter said.
Shocked by his discovery, the academic said he quickly contacted Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia and a fellow "Magna Carta pundit".
"I said, 'is this what I think it is?' And he said, 'yeah, I think it is too,'" Carpenter recounted.
Magna Carta (Great Charter) is often regarded as the earliest declaration of human rights, credited with enshrining the rights of man in English law.
According to the United Kingdom's Parliament website, the charter was the first "to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law."
Today, it is revered around the world as the document that established the principle that everyone - including the monarch - was subject to the rule of law.
"He (the King) couldn't just say, 'off with your head, into prison, I'm seizing your property.' If he wanted to act against you, he had to do so by due legal process," Carpenter said.
Imaging technology being used to help Harvard Law School librarians examine a faded copy of Magna Carta in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo: Debora Mayer/Harvard Weissman Center/AP via CNN Newsource
The academics believe that the Harvard document is one of just seven from King Edward I's 1300 issue of Magna Carta that still survive.
Amanda Watson, Harvard Law School's assistant dean for library services, congratulated the work of the British academics on their "fantastic discovery". She added that the new research "exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard Law Library's, are opened to brilliant scholars".
Harvard's Law School Library bought the document in 1946 via auction from London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell, according to its accession register. The auction catalogue described the manuscript as a "copy… made in 1327… somewhat rubbed and damp-stained," a press release announcing the discovery said. The London book dealers had only owned it for a short time, having bought it from World War I pilot Air Vice Marshal Maenad, who had inherited it from two leading campaigners against the slave trade.
"The provenance of this document is just fantastic," Vincent said in the press release. "Given where it is, given present problems over liberties, over the sense of constitutional tradition in America, you couldn't invent a provenance that was more wonderful than this."
Multiple tell-tale signs initially gave away the document's authenticity, Carpenter said, including the style of handwriting and the big "E" at the start of the first line - which stands for "Edward's."
The document's dimensions at 48.9 centimetres (19.3 inches) by 47.3cm (18.6 inches) were also consistent with those found in the six previously known originals.
Later, ultraviolet images and other images provided by Harvard Law School were used to "match up" the text of the new document to the other originals, Carpenter said.
"That made me convinced that it was indeed authentic," Carpenter added.
So, what will happen to the document now?
Both academics are due to visit Harvard in June for a celebration to mark the discovery of the medieval document. After that, Carpenter believes that it will be put on public display as "one of the jewels in the crown" of Harvard's collection.
- CNN
