Harvard Law School bought a copy of Magna Carta for $27. Turns out, it’s actually an original

CNN A copy of Magna Carta bought decades ago by Harvard Law School for just is now understood to be an extremely rare original from 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 narrated CNN Thursday recounting the moment he made the discovery I definitively came to Harvard Law School manuscript number clicked on that expecting to see a statute book And what I saw was an original of the Magna Carta Carpenter mentioned Shocked by his discovery the academic commented he fleetly contacted Nicholas Vincent a professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia and a fellow Magna Carta pundit I revealed Is this what I think it is And he explained 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 leadership was not above the law In contemporary times 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 sought to act against you he had to do so by due legal process Carpenter mentioned The academics believe that the Harvard document is one of just seven from King Edward I s 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 via auction from London bookdealers Sweet Maxwell according to its accession register The auction catalogue described the manuscript as a copy made in somewhat rubbed and damp-stained a press release announcing the discovery noted The London bookdealers had only owned it for a short time having bought it from World War I pilot Air Vice Marshal Maynard who d inherited it from two leading campaigners against the slave exchange The provenance of this document is just fantastic Vincent declared 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 disclosed including the style of handwriting and the big E at the start of the first line which stands for Edwardus The document s dimensions at centimeters inches by centimeters inches were also consistent with those determined 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 disclosed 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 inhabitants display as one of the jewels in the crown of Harvard s collection