The Magna Carta is almost here! 800 years after being issued in England, it is making it’s way to the New-York Historical Society. 

Our collections are full of documents relating to the American Revolution and the drafting of the United States Constitution, but for one week they’ll be joined by the document that helped inspire those many treatises on liberty and the rights of the individual.

This is the Hereford Cathedral Magna Carta, a 1217 revision of the 1215 original document. It is the text of this version that actually entered into English law. 

Come see it while you can! It will be on display from Wednesday, September 23 through Wednesday, September 30 (ONLY!) 

All images copyright The Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral from the Library and Archive collections.

Via handwriting analysis, scholar discovers unknown Magna Carta scribe

Eight hundred years ago, one of the world’s most important documents was born. Issued by King John of England in 1215, the Magna Carta (“Great Charter”) acknowledged the rights of citizens and set restrictions on the power of the king. The Magna Carta has influenced the structures of modern democracies, including the writ of habeas corpus of the U.S. Constitution.

Thanks to meticulous comparative handwriting analysis, Stanford literary scholar Elaine Treharne has uncovered new information about who wrote one of the last four surviving original versions of the 1215 Magna Carta, preserved at England’s Salisbury Cathedral.

Scholars have long thought that the Magna Carta was issued by the king in the Chancery, the king’s central court, written by his scribes there and then sent out to other locations in the shires, or counties, of England. Read more.

The Magna Carta was signed in 1215 and restricted the powers of the unpopular King John. It stated the principle of Heabus Corpus, meaning each individual would be equal under the eyes of the law.