One of the Western world’s most famous examples of legal rights for man under the court of law, the Magna Carta, is a document we all learn about in history class. Besides learning about it for a test, we don’t think much beyond that and of the Magna Carta in its physical surviving form. While the text has been transcribed into other forms, the original documents still hold great significance and are an artifact of our collective history as humans. Yet, one of the surviving versions of this revolutionary legal coding has some interesting bargain-hunting history.
When a British medieval history professor at London’s King College was searching through the online catalog of Harvard University, he came across manuscript number 172. Expecting a normal scanned book or typewritten document, he was surprised when this worn manuscript loaded onto the screen. To him, it was hard to verify, but he contacted a specialist of the Magna Carta, a fellow professor at the University of East Anglia. When that professor examined the manuscript, the gut feeling began to become grounded; this was a seriously old, if not original, copy of the Magna Carta written in the 1300s.
When King Edward I of the 1300s issued the Magna Carta, there were several manuscripts made. Before this discovery, the small surviving Magna Carta versions only amounted to six. The background of the Harvard copy wasn’t murky and had clear provenance. With worn edges and a dampness to the document, the condition drew little interest, and the document was purchased for Harvard for a mere $27 which, even with an inflation adjustment of $475 in today’s money, is still a pretty big steal.
After the discovery, the document was compared to other known verified copies of the Magna Carta. The scanning and letting comparison further legitimized the manuscript’s authenticity.