Harvard Law's $27.50 'Copy' Turns Out to Be Priceless Magna Carta Original
Priceless Find Hidden in Plain Sight at Harvard Law
Imagine stumbling across one of the most famous legal documents in history, thinking it’s just a damp, clumsy copy, and later finding out it’s the real deal. That’s what happened at Harvard Law School. Back in 1946, the school bought what it believed was an unremarkable ‘copy’ of the Magna Carta from a London book dealer for a mere $27.50 — barely the cost of a dinner out today, if you factor in inflation.
The document, sold by Sweet & Maxwell after a Sotheby’s auction, landed in the Harvard archives under the label HLS MS 172. At first glance, it seemed like a run-of-the-mill reproduction dating back to 1327, made unofficially, and written on a stained piece of parchment. For decades, it sat mostly unnoticed, filed away with countless other historical odds and ends.
The Experts Weigh In and Digitization Changes the Game
Everything changed when two medieval historians, David Carpenter from King’s College London and Nicholas Vincent from the University of East Anglia, decided to take a closer look. Here’s the twist: these experts never set foot in the Harvard library. Instead, they fired up their laptops and examined high-resolution images of the document, thanks to Harvard’s extensive digitized archives. That easy access proved invaluable — they could pore over details and compare the manuscript with others from across the globe without a single transatlantic flight.
What Carpenter and Vincent saw was pretty special. The parchment revealed its secrets: its style, inscriptions, and even the holes and stains matched originals from the time of King Edward I. Through this careful digital detective work, it became clear that HLS MS 172 wasn’t a 1327 copy at all, but an actual 1300 issue of the Magna Carta rolled out from the royal chancery under Edward I. That puts it in rare company — just seven of these originals are known to have survived the chaos of history.
This document is more than just a museum piece. The Magna Carta stands at the root of modern constitutional law, spelling out, for the first time, that the king and the government have limits to their power. In other words, no one is above the law, a message that still rings loud centuries later.
The shock discovery at Harvard Law isn’t just about luck — it’s a win for the digitization of archives. Because the document was scanned and uploaded, experts could analyze it remotely and uncover its true identity. Without digital access, this priceless piece of history might still be mistaken for little more than an ancient, water-stained curiosity buried in the stacks.
This episode shows that sometimes treasures really are hiding in plain sight, just waiting for technology and a sharp pair of eyes to spot them.