Historic Magna Carta documents go on display in 2015


Released on: July 17, 2013, 11:03 am
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Industry: Travel

All four surviving Magna Cartas will be exhibited together at the British Library for the first time in a major exhibition dedicated to British constitution and liberty.

-- /EPR NETWORK/ -- For the first time in history the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta will be brought together in 2015 for the 800th anniversary of the charter’s creation in 1215. The Magna Cartas will be displayed at the British Library over three days in early 2015 to begin a year of celebration for the founding document of British liberty. The British Library is in central London, within easy reach of all major stations and airports. Visitors to London looking for hotels near Heathrow should visit LondonTown.com, where the latest deals on hotel rooms for all budgets can be found.

The Magna Carta – or ‘Great Charter’ – was written in Latin on parchment and established for the first time that the king was subject to the law, rather than being above it. It was written by English nobles in response to perceived abuses by King John and remains a cornerstone of not just the British constitution but also many others around the world, including the US.

The four surviving copies – two owned by the British Library and one each by Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral – will be brought together to form the centrepiece of a major exhibition at the British Library, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the public to see these documents side-by-side. This unique opportunity will allow historians to study faded or obscured parts of the text more closely and to look for new clues about the identity of the writers of the texts, which is hitherto unknown.

Claire Breay, Lead Curator of Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts at the British Library, says, ‘Magna Carta is the most popular item in the Library’s Treasures Gallery, and is venerated around the world as marking the starting point for government under the law. Bringing the four surviving manuscripts together for the first time will create a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for researchers and members of the public to see them in one place, and will be a fantastic start to a year of celebrations.’ For more information on the British Library’s Treasures Gallery – where some of the most important books in documents in British history can be seen – see LondonTown.com, London’s most reliable website for the latest visitor information in the capital.

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