Magna Carta 'copy' sold for $27.50 is the genuine article

Document from 1300 bought for derisory’ price 80 years ago

- SAM RUSSELL

A rare original Magna Carta, misidentified and sold "for a fairly derisory price", has been uncovered 80 years after it was wrongly catalogued.

The remarkable discovery was made by Professor David Carpenter, a medieval history expert at King’s College London. While researching unofficial Magna Carta copies online, the professor stumbled upon a digitised version of the Harvard document and suspected its authenticity.

Subsequent tests, including meticulous textual comparisons, confirmed the document as an original dating back to 1300, issued under King Edward I.

Professor Carpenter hailed the find as a “fantastic discovery”, emphasising the document’s significance: “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.”

Prof Carpenter teamed up with fellow Magna Carta expert Nicholas Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, to investigate the provenance of the document. Prof Vincent said Harvard’s Magna Carta is the 25th known surviving Magna Carta original.