Harvard Bought a $27.50 ‘Copy’ of Magna Carta That Turned Out To Be a Genuine Manuscript of the “Most Famous Single Document in the History of the World”

In the spring of 2024, two medieval historians in Britain were browsing Harvard’s online library catalog when something stopped them cold. On the screen was a weathered parchment, labeled “HLS MS 172” and long believed to be a homemade copy of Magna Carta. But as David Carpenter of King’s College London and Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia studied the document’s lines and letters, they saw something few others had noticed.

What they were looking at was not a mere reproduction — but an original. It’s now confirmed as one of just seven known surviving originals from the 1300 issue of Magna Carta under King Edward I.

The finding places Harvard Law School’s long-overlooked manuscript among the rarest artifacts of constitutional history.

“This is a fantastic discovery,” said Professor Carpenter. “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.”

A Charter of Freedom and Basic Human Rights, Rediscovered

The two historians made their find while browsing online from their offices in the U.K. They had been browsing libraries across the world, studying unofficial copies of Magna Carta. But when they saw HLS MS 172, they suspected the specimen might actually be an original Medieval manuscript.

So, they requested ultraviolet and multispectral imaging from Harvard librarians, who responded with a flurry of advanced scans. Under these lights, the ink and fibers of HLS MS 172 told their story in sharp relief.

Carpenter compared the text to other surviving originals. He noted the large, looping “E” in the first line — “Edwardus” — and the parchment’s size: 489mm by 473mm, consistent with the other six known originals from 1300.

Every feature aligned. The handwriting, parchment dimensions, and textual fidelity matched exactly with the six other known originals.

Then came the decisive test. In 1300, royal clerks had issued a new, standardized version of the Magna Carta text. If Harvard’s manuscript varied from that version, it would likely be a fake or later copy. However, the manuscript’s words matched the official 1300 version exactly.

“The text had to be correct,” Carpenter said, and this one, he confirmed, “passed the test with flying colors.”

A Curious Find

This raises another question. How did a royal charter cross an ocean and wind up in a law school library?

The researchers traced its origin to Appleby, a former parliamentary borough in the English Lake District. Issued to the town in 1300, the document followed a circuitous path through the hands of British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, to World War I flying ace Forster “Sammy” Maynard, who eventually auctioned it off.

In 1945, the manuscript was sold by Sotheby’s to London law book dealers Sweet & Maxwell, who then sold it to Harvard Law School the following year — for just $27.50.

Its auction listing described it as a “copy … made in 1327 … somewhat rubbed and damp-stained.”

Harvard’s legal scholars never thought much of it.

Until now.

“A Totem of Liberty”

Magna Carta — originally issued in 1215 under King John — has long been revered as a foundational symbol of liberty and rule of law. Though the original charter dealt largely with feudal grievances, its legacy evolved. The principles it enshrined — limiting royal power, guaranteeing fair trials, and establishing the idea that no one is above the law (not even the king) — echoed through centuries.

It helped to shape the U.S. Constitution and inspired the Declaration of Independence. It’s quoted in Supreme Court rulings and political speeches alike.

“It’s a totem of liberty,” said Professor Vincent.

“If you asked anybody what the most famous single document in the history of the world is,” he added, “they would probably name Magna Carta.”

This version, now newly authenticated, serves to make the Magna Carta lore even more fascinating and appealing. Not only is it a rare original, but its journey to the United States places it at the intersection of abolition, postwar recovery, and modern legal scholarship.

“The provenance of this document is just fantastic,” Vincent added. “Given present problems over liberties, over the sense of constitutional tradition in America, you couldn’t invent a provenance that was more wonderful than this.”

A Digital Discovery, a Human Touch

While Carpenter and Vincent earned headlines for their scholarly sleuthing, librarians like Amanda Watson have worked quietly in the background to make such discoveries possible.

Watson, assistant dean for Library and Information Services at Harvard Law School, oversees digitization efforts that began in the 1980s. Her team has worked on everything from medieval manuscripts to the Charles Ogletree papers and legal records from the Nuremberg trials.

“We have a fantastic medieval manuscript collection,” she said, “but we also have so much more. All of these projects take what we do further, beyond just serving our faculty and students, connecting a global audience to our rich collections.”

Digitization doesn’t just involve scanning. It requires careful handling, metadata tagging, and specialized imaging — sometimes with ultraviolet light, sometimes with artificial intelligence.

And it’s not all ancient history. Harvard is currently digitizing thousands of postwar legal records and exploring how AI can speed up access and preservation.

“This work exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard Law School Library’s, are opened to brilliant scholars,” said Watson. “Behind every scholarly revelation stands the essential work of librarians who not only collect and preserve materials but create pathways that otherwise would remain hidden.”