Harvard Law School’s Magna Carta Turns Out to be an Original
In 1946, Harvard Law School made a historic purchase of an early copy of the Magna Carta for a mere $27.50, which would be equivalent to around $451 in today’s valuation. Initially believed to be dated to 1327, just 27 years after King Edward I’s proclamation, the document was a significant acquisition for the university.
For years, Harvard’s rare edition of the Magna Carta served as a powerful symbol of society’s progression towards recognizing fundamental human rights. However, a recent reevaluation has stunned historians and the document’s current owners. It has been revealed that Harvard’s Magna Carta is not a copy but one of the seven original manuscripts penned in 1300.
Researchers, led by medieval historian David Carpenter from King’s College London, used UV lights and spectral imaging to compare Harvard’s edition with the six confirmed originals. The document passed the test with flying colors, confirming its authenticity as an original Magna Carta.
The discovery has been hailed as fantastic by Carpenter, who emphasized the significance of the document in world constitutional history. The uniformity between Harvard’s edition and the other originals provides new evidence of Magna Carta’s importance in the eyes of contemporaries.
Further historical research revealed that Harvard’s Magna Carta was originally presented to a former parliamentary borough in Westmorland, England. The document was later auctioned in 1945 by Forster “Sammy” Maynard, an air vice-marshal and former World War I flying ace, who had inherited it from the archives of leading abolitionists Thomas and John Clarkson.
Nicholas Vincent, a medieval historian at the University of East Anglia, described the provenance of Harvard’s Magna Carta as exceptional, especially given the current challenges over liberties and constitutional tradition in America.
The reevaluation project has highlighted the importance of preserving and understanding the principles of self-governance, as emphasized by Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard Law School’s vice dean for Library and Information Services. The discovery of Harvard’s original Magna Carta adds a new chapter to the document’s rich history and reaffirms its enduring significance in the realm of constitutional law. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern world has been nothing short of revolutionary. From self-driving cars to virtual assistants, AI technology has permeated almost every aspect of our daily lives. But what exactly is AI, and how does it work?
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