Harvard’s long-overlooked Magna Carta copy turns out to be a priceless piece of constitutional history
For decades, a tattered and misdated parchment sat largely unnoticed in the Harvard Law School Library’s archives. Purchased in 1946 for just $27.50, it was presumed to be an unremarkable 14th-century reproduction of the Magna Carta, a historic but common reference text. That presumption was upended when two British scholars examined the document in late 2023. They concluded it is an original version of the Magna Carta issued in 1300 by King Edward I. “My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta,” said David...
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