Misidentified Magna Carta bought for $27 confirmed as 1300 original

Cotton MS. Augustus II. 106, one of four surviving exemplifications of the 1215 text (British Library)

The document was acquired in 1946 from a London bookseller for just $27.50, before its true provenance was known. By comparison, an original Magna Carta sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007 fetched over $21 million — then equivalent to about £10 million.

The rediscovery came after David Carpenter, professor of medieval history at King’s College London, examined a digitised version of the document on Harvard’s website while researching unofficial copies of the Magna Carta. Tests later confirmed it as an original 1300 issue, sealed under King Edward I.

Professor Carpenter described it as a “fantastic discovery”, adding: “Harvard’s Magna Carta 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.”

He collaborated with Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, to investigate the find. Professor Vincent confirmed that Harvard’s document is now the 25th known surviving original.

The Magna Carta, first issued in 1215 under King John, established the principle that the monarch was subject to the law and recognised certain rights under common law. Although the 1215 charter was annulled within weeks, it was subsequently reissued three times by King John’s son, Henry III, with the final version in 1225 becoming the definitive text.

Further reissues followed in the 13th century during periods of conflict between monarch and realm. The 1300 version — of which only seven originals, including Harvard’s, are known to survive — marked the last time Magna Carta was issued as a single-sheet document bearing the king’s seal.

“That became the definitive text of Magna Carta,” Professor Vincent said.

“Then whenever in the 13th Century there was a dispute between the king and the nation, kings reissued Magna Carta on at least three occasions after 1225.

“And this one (Harvard’s Magna Carta), the 1300 issue, is the last time it was issued as a single sheet document under the king’s seal as an official endorsement of the settlement of Magna Carta.”