Harvard Law’s Magna Carta ‘copy’ is actually rare relic, researchers say

By Karen Sloan

May 15 (Reuters) - Harvard’s law school library paid $27.50 in 1946 to acquire what was billed as a “somewhat rubbed and damp-stained” copy of the Magna Carta from 1327 to add to its robust collection of medieval texts.

But British researchers now have determined that Harvard’s Magna Carta is in fact an original from King Edward I’s 1300 re-issue of that pivotal document — one of just seven to survive — that forms the basis for the constitutions of many nations.

“This is a fantastic discovery,” said King’s College London medieval history professor David Carpenter in a Thursday announcement of the finding, adding that the Magna Carta is among the “most significant documents in world constitutional history.”

A Harvard Law spokesperson said the school has not assessed the current value of its Magna Carta but called it an “invaluable historical document and resource.” An original Magna Carta from 1297 sold at auction for $21.3 million in 2007.

The Magna Carta, first signed by King John in 1215 to quell a rebellion of barons, established the rights of the English people and curbed the power of the king. It was ratified and reissued with each monarch who succeeded John and enacted as law in 1297 by the British parliament. The Magna Carta was the basis for both the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Carpenter was studying unofficial Magna Carta copies when he saw a digitized version of Harvard’s document and suspected it could be an original. He teamed up with medieval history professor Nicholas Vincent from the University of East Anglia to dig into the origins of the document, comparing it to the six other known Magna Cartas from 1300, each of which was written by hand.

The text of Harvard’s document matched up perfectly with the 1300 originals, as did its dimensions, the researchers said. The handwriting also lined up, with a large capital “E” at the start of “Edwardus” and elongated letters in the text’s first line.

The finding comes as the Trump administration has canceled more than $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University for what it has said is race discrimination and a failure to address anti-Semitism on campus. Harvard has sued, alleging that the administration's sweeping demands violate the free speech guarantees of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

“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,” Vincent said in the announcement.

Vincent and Carpenter believe Harvard’s Magna Carta could be a lost original issued to the former parliamentary borough of Appleby in Westmorland, England. It eventually made its way into the possession of British World War 1 flying ace Forster ‘Sammy’ Maynard, who auctioned it in 1945.

A London book dealer purchased it and quickly put it up for aUction again, when Harvard Law bought it.

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