[MUSIC] You join me here at the British Library, where I'm fortunate enough to be joined by Julian Harrison, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts. Julian's going to tell us about the history of the Charter, and how it's seemed to, almost, survive throughout its 800 years. So Julian, can you tell me how the Charter survived into the early modern period? >> So, there are four copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. Two of them are today held at the British Library in London. One is owned by Lincoln Cathedral. And the other is owned by Salisbury Cathedral. Now we imagine that the Lincoln copy was sent to the Bishop of Lincoln in 1215. Salisbury Cathedral copy presumably ended up at Salisbury in the Middle Ages. But the two British Library copies belonged to the collection of a collector named Sir Robert Cotton. He was an antiquarian and MP. And in the 1620s, 1630s, he collected a very large library of manuscripts. Including items such as Valensi Gospels, the Beowulf Manuscript. And he also owned two copies of Magna Carta. Now we know roughly where, where those two copies came from. One of them was sent to him in 1630 by Sir Edward Dering, he was the Lieutenant of Dover Castle. And it's often been believed that Dering must have acquired that copy of Magna Carta from Dover. Perhaps it was a copy sent to the same ports in 1215. But new research has shown that more likely, that was a copy which originally was sent to Canterbury Cathedral. Perhaps it was even the copy of Magna Carta which once belonged to Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The other British Library copy of Magna Carta has a very interesting history. We know that it was presented to Robert Cotton on the 1st of January, 1629 by Humphrey Wyams who was a barrister in London. And there's an account that Wyams actually discovered it in a London tailor shop, which assumes that it had been taken to a shop as waste, as salvage, it was going to be destroyed. Wyams saw it, realizes the significance, and presented it to Cotton. >> How important was print to the spread of the text and it's significance? So Magna Carta was first printed in 1508 by Richard Pynson, the king's printer. He had a printing press in Fleet Street in London. And he printed Magna Carta together with other ancient statutes. It was of a Latin text of Magna Carta, the version confirmed by Edward I, in 1297. That was quite significant because from that time onwards, Magna Carta would have been the first statute for every English lawyer would have studied. Magna Carta was then translated into English, in 1534. And in addition published by Richard Redman another London printer. He was actually the successor to Pynson as the king's printer. That copy of Magna Carta had been translated into English by George Ferrers, who was a courtier and poet. There are errors in the translation and it was revised over the years. But from that time onwards, the texts of Magna Carta would have been current. At various points in the 16th century, Magna Carta starts appearing at legal cases. Most significantly in 1535, when Sir Thomas Moore, the former Lord Chancellor, is put on trial for his life. At his trial, Moore claims that the king's new religious reforms, religious reforms of Henry VIII are contrary to the terms of Magna Carta, specifically the clause of the Magna Carta, which protects the privileges of the English Church. >> How significant were the printed editions to the reputation of the Magna Carta? So at this period Magna Carta is known primarily in legal circles. And is occasionally cited in court most notably at the trial of Thomas Moore in 1545. And other people start to use and refer to Magna Carta. But it's quite curious that in the 16th century, Magna Carta is still not necessarily known to the population at large. It's curious, for example, that when William Shakespeare writes his play about King John, the one episode in the reign that people know about today, Magna Carta does not feature at all in Shakespeare's play. So Magna Carta is important for lawyers. But primarily for lawyers alone. >> How important was the preservation of Magna Carta by the British Library? >> The British Library owns two copies of the 1215 Magna Carta granted by King John. They both belonged to the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, and then they were bequeathed to the nation in 1702 by Cotton's grandson. This was before the British Museum had been founded, before there was a National Library. And for a period of some 30 years, the manuscripts were kept in storage. Unfortunately, in October 1731, a fire broke out where the manuscripts were then held at a place named Ashburnham House in Westminster. And one of the two copies of Magna Carta was slightly damaged in that fire. However, it wasn't damaged to the extent that it cannot be read. And shortly after the fire, an engraving of it was made. Subsequently in the 19th century, conservatives at the British Museum attempted to restore the fire damaged Magna Carta. They would have used the processes which were best known to them at the time. But unfortunately, the text of that Magna Carta has now become extraordinarily difficult to read. The document itself has deteriorated. Was the 18th century a turning point in the preservation of the artifact itself? >> Well, it was significant for one of a, one of the 1215 documents, the one which was damaged in a fire. That was the only one of the original 1215 Magna Cartas which still had the great seal of England, King John's wax seal, attached at its foot. So not only was the charter damaged in the fire, the edges were singed, but the wax seal was melted in that fire. So, in that respect, the 18th century was significant because Magna Carta had survived for 600 years. And at that point, it was damaged. But it still survives to this day. Recently, at the British Library we've been doing some significant imaging work on the damaged Magna Carta. We're very confident that we, we now have the, we now have the technology to be able to read the text of Magna Carta using a technique called multi-spectroscopy. By which you can actually, you can actually see into the pages, of, it's a form of x-ray, effectively. >> How important was Blackstone to the evolution of the text? There's more than one version of Magna Carta. There's the original version granted by king John in 1215. That's annulled within 10 weeks by the Pope. And so in 1216, a second copy of Magna Carta was issued in a revised version in order cement the kingship of the new king Henry III. That's subsequently revised again in 1217. A definitive version is issued in 1225, and that's entered onto the Statute Rule in 1297. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 16th and 17th centuries, people were unable to distinguish between the various versions of Magna Carta. And it wasn't until 1759 when the Oxford scholar and lawyer William Blackstone wrote the commentary on Magna Carta. And he was the first person, in his book The Great Charter and the Charter Before Us, to distinguish between the different versions of Magna Carta. It was he who demonstrated what the original text of Magna Carta contained, and how it had been amended over the years.
