The parchment, catalogued as HLS MS 172, had lain in Harvard’s Law Library since 1946, sold for $27.50, and was misidentified as a 1327 copy.
In December 2023, King's College London historian David Carpenter noticed the document on Harvard’s website and, spotting handwriting that matched the 1300 edition, reached out to Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia.
The two scholars compared the parchment’s dimensions—489 mm by 473 mm—to those of the six known originals and used ultraviolet and spectral imaging to recover faded ink, confirming that the text and layout matched the 1300 charter exactly.
The 1300 reissue is historically significant; it was the last time the full Magna Carta was sealed by an English king, and only six copies were previously known.
With the new parchment, Harvard now holds seven surviving originals, a number that will likely spur further research and a reassessment of how the charter has been preserved.
Harvard plans to reclassify the document in its catalog, update museum labels, and publish a joint paper with Carpenter and Vincent next spring.