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A Historian Pulled an Old Document Out of Storage—and Discovered an Original Magna Carta

created: May 20, 2025, 1 p.m. | updated: May 23, 2025, 8:06 p.m.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this story:Two British scholars discovered that an innocuous Harvard Law School Library document was actually an original 1300 copy of the Magna Carta. Now, they believe this copy to be one of the last Magna Carta originals to have ever been created. The 1300 Magna Carta has small differences from other versions, and the changes are found in every 1300 original, Carpenter said, which was helpful when comparing the Harvard document to the others. “There’s a chain of connection there, as it were, a smoking gun,” Vincent said, “but there isn’t any clear proof as yet that this is the Appleby Magna Carta. Harvard plans to keep its Magna Carta, but now, they know it’s worth.

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