Harvard University has revealed that a document long thought to be a cheap copy of the Magna Carta is, in fact, a rare and authentic 1300 edition issued by King Edward I—one of only seven known to exist.
David Carpenter, a medieval history professor at King’s College London, discovered the document while browsing Harvard Law School Library’s digitized archives. “My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta,” Carpenter said. “It was astonishment that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realizing what it was.”
Carpenter partnered with Professor Nicholas Vincent from the University of East Anglia to confirm the document’s authenticity. Using ultraviolet light and spectral imaging, they examined the text and handwriting. The analysis revealed consistent formatting and unique features like a capital “E” in “Edwardus” and elongated letters, matching the six other known copies from 1300.
After King John’s original Magna Carta in 1215, several revised versions followed. The 1300 edition was the last full version authorized by royal seal. “The 1300 version of Magna Carta is different from the previous versions in a whole series of small ways and the changes are found in every single one,” Carpenter noted.
Harvard acquired the document in 1946 from a London book dealer for just $27.50, believing it to be a 1327 reproduction. Vincent traced its journey from the British borough of Appleby in Westmorland, possibly passed through abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, and inherited by WWI flying ace Forster Maynard. “There’s a chain of connection there… but there isn’t any clear proof as yet that this is the Appleby Magna Carta,” Vincent said. “But it seems to me very likely that it is.”
Vincent and Carpenter plan to visit Harvard in June to view the historical treasure firsthand, noting the significance of its discovery amid Harvard’s current legal and political challenges. “It turns up at Harvard at precisely the moment where Harvard is under attack as a private institution by a state authority that seems to want to tell Harvard what to do,” Vincent added.
Amanda Watson, assistant dean at Harvard Law, reflected on the document’s lasting importance: “To think that Magna Carta could inspire new generations of people to think about individual liberty and what that means and what self-governance means is very exciting.”
