Four surviving Magna Carta copies on show together after 800 years

LONDON: For the first time in history, the four surviving original copies of the world’s most important document of parliamentary democracy – the Magna Carta have come under one single roof.
The document dating back to 1215 will be together at the British Library for three days, from February 2 to 4.
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the priceless document that has always been considered the first steps towards parliamentary democracy and includes the principle that no one was above the law, including the king.
It was agreement granted by King John in 1215 which in the centuries since has become a potent symbol of liberty and the rule of law.
The Library, Lincoln Cathedral and the Salisbury Cathedral made history by bringing those four original surviving manuscripts together in one place, for the first time.
The manuscripts will travel to the House of Lords for one day on Feb 5, before being separated and put on display by their home institutions in major anniversary exhibitions.
Reem Khokhar from Visit England said “This year marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. With India having just celebrated its 66th Republic Day and being the largest democracy in the world, some may be unaware of our democratic rights stemming from this iconic Great Charter that has influenced constitutional thinking around the world”.
According to Ms Khokhar, Indian tourists to Britain saw the largest jump ever in 2013 in recent history.
She added “As many as 376,000 Indians visited UK in 2013 – a jump of 10% over the previous ever, which is by far the largest jump. England alone accounted for 360,000 of these Indian tourists. They can now enjoy various destinations around England this year celebrating this landmark anniversary with tourist trails, world class exhibitors and river pageants - from the British Library in London, Lincoln Castle and Salisbury Cathedral where the only surviving four copies are housed to Windsor Castle which was King John’s beloved home and where several meetings around the Magna Carta were held between the King and the barons to Runnymede Meadows where the Magna Carta was sealed in 1215”.
On Feb 3, the manuscripts will be viewed by 1215 people who won the chance to attend the event after entering a public ballot launched last year. The winners were randomly selected from 43,715 applicants from over 20 countries, who all entered the ballot to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
On Feb 4, a group of world-leading Magna Carta academics will have the chance to examine the manuscripts side by side as part of a major research project. They’ll be using this unique opportunity to look at the handwriting of each of the scribes, consider evidence of the ownership of the documents over 800 years, and examine the four manuscripts in context of several hundred other King John charters they have already studied during the course of the three-year research project.
Claire Breay, the head of medieval manuscripts at the British Library said “King John could surely never have anticipated the enduring global legacy of Magna Carta when he agreed to its terms in 1215. Around 800 years later, the international interest and excitement about this unification event is testament to the extraordinary significance and symbolic power of these four manuscripts”.
“The fundamental principles expressed in Magna Carta are as resonant and relevant today as when they were first written in 1215”.
King John agreed the terms of the Charter of Runnymede, subsequently known as Magna Carta, on June 15, 1215. Like other medieval royal charters, the original Magna Carta documents which were drawn up for distribution across the kingdom were authenticated with the Great Seal, not by the signature of the king. The original Magna Carta manuscripts were dispatched over a period of a few weeks in late June and early July 1215. It isn’t known exactly how many copies were drawn up in 1215, but of the original Magna Carta manuscripts, only four survive.
The two copies of Magna Carta held at the British Library came into the national collection in 1753 as part of the vast private library of the MP and antiquary Sir Robert Cotton. One of the British Library’s Magna Carta manuscripts has a remarkable story of survival against the odds. In 1731 it was damaged in the Cotton Library fire and subsequently staff at the British Museum Library used early-19th century techniques to try to flatten and mount it, which has led to parts of it being very difficult to read with the naked eye.
In 2014 conservation scientists in the British Library were able to use multi-spectral imaging to view parts of the text which haven’t been seen properly for nearly 200 years.
The Salisbury Magna Carta has been at the Cathedral since the 13th century. It may have been deposited there by William Longespee, one of King John’s chief advisers. The Lincoln Magna Carta has belonged to the Cathedral for 800 years. It is arriving at the British Library directly from the US after being on display in Massachusetts and Washington, DC, where over 200,000 people went to view it. On its return to Lincoln, the manuscript will move from the cathedral into a new permanent home at the ‘Magna Carta Vault’ in nearby Lincoln Castle.
Destinations across England will celebrate this landmark anniversary throughout 2015 with new tourist trails, world-class exhibitions and a visit from Queen Elizabeth to the historic site where the document was first sealed.
Six new self-guided trails have been launched to tell the Magna Carta story. Each self-guided trail provides visitors with two to three day itineraries across the 10 Charter cities and towns incorporating the Cathedral cities of the north, King John’s effigy in Worcester as well as Runnymede where the document was sealed.
An international commemoration will take place on June 15 to mark the 800th anniversary.
The Queen will attend the commemoration activities taking place on Runnymede Meadows near Windsor, where the document was sealed.
The Bodleian Library houses four of the seventeen surviving pre-1300 ‘engrossments’ of Magna Carta. To honour its 800th anniversary, the new Weston Library at the Bodleian will host an exhibition entitled ‘Marks of Genius’, which will display the Gloucester Charter.