Harvard cut-price Magna Carta 'copy' now believed to be genuine

The BBC reported yesterday that a manuscript once considered an unofficial “copy” of the Magna Carta is now believed to be a genuine version and “one of the world’s most valuable documents”, according to UK academics.

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Harvard Law School paid $27.50 (then about £7) for it in 1946 and for years it has remained tucked away in its library, its true identity unknown.

But two medieval history professors have concluded it is an extraordinarily rare and lost original

Harvard Law School paid just $27.50 (then about £7) for the document in 1946 (Harvard Law School Photo)

Magna Carta from 1300, in the reign of King Edward I, that could be worth millions.

"This is a fantastic discovery," said Prof David Carpenter from King's College London, who began analysing it after seeing digitised images of it on the US university's website.

"It is the last Magna Carta... [and it] 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 said he was "absolutely astonished" that not only had he discovered this authentic version, but that, over the years, no-one seemed to know what they had and that it had been sold "for peanuts".