Even if historians had seen a record of the St John’s copy in the past, they would probably not have recognised its significance as they would have been unaware that it was in this form.
A rare 14th Century copy of Magna Carta that appears to have been unnoticed for generations, until it was uncovered during research marking the document’s 800th anniversary, can now be viewed online.
The copy, which is owned by St John’s College, University of Cambridge, dates back to the reign of Edward I, and is one of just a handful of surviving statute rolls that recite clauses from the famous charter. Edward I was one of the monarchs who reissued a version of the Magna Carta, which was originally produced in 1215, during the reign of King John.
Although it had been preserved in the College archives, the manuscript appears to have been overlooked – and may indeed have been completely unknown to historians – until now. Its significance was only realised when Professor Nicholas Vincent, from the University of East Anglia and head of the national Magna Carta Project, contacted the College to enquire about documents that be believed contained clauses from the charter.
Professor Vincent realised that the item is, in fact, an early-to-mid 14th Century example of a type of statute roll that would have been used to circulate parts of Magna Carta throughout medieval England. While these were once commonplace, only about a dozen are known to exist today.
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Image: Detail from the 14th-century copy of Magna Carta at St John’s College
Credit: St John's College, Cambridge
For more information about the St John’s College archives, including visiting times, please go to: http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/archives
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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