Magna Carta, approximately 1300. Manuscript. HLS MS 172, Harvard Law School Library https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:49364859$1i
The magic of compound interest: buying an original Magna Carta for $27 and selling it for $21 million 80 years later is equivalent to achieving 18.5% compound interest. Roughly the same rate and duration as Warren Buffett's investing career, with a smaller starting value.
And it's still an active legal document
You can see it in the UK legislation portal — the parts which are still in force
$450 when corrected for inflation.
If you ever have the chance, you absolutely should visit the libraries and museums on campus. It's a treat.
I especially loved walking around Widener Library and marveling at the murals and that original Guteberg Bible
When I visited London a few years ago I went to the British Library and stumbled into their collection (and it was incredibly impressive). I had no idea they had two original Magna Cartas. If you have a chance to see the document at Harvard, you should! It's really something.
Magna Carta reminds me of the "Seven parts" from Alphonse X of Castille, nearly in the same era.
Also, for its day, it was kinda open-minded and progressive, and Alphonse X was a damn nerd as he ordered to compose a book of games like chess and more tabletop games like Nine Men Morris (Libro de los juegos/The Book of Games).
My UK high school sold a 1297 version of Magna Carta to the Australian Government in 1952 for 12500 pounds.
Saw some of the examples on holiday last month when we were in Salisbury. It was really neat to be that close to one of the ones sent out. Before that time, I'd never actually read the Magna Carta, which really was an interesting read.
Reminds me of that time I found a book at my Uni library that was in the rare books collection that I could only read in the reading room and then saw there were many copies on AMZN for 50 cents + shipping.
That is just such a Harvard thing to do.
Harvard: Sorry we can’t give you a discount in our outrageous tuition; yes I know how big our endowment is.
Also Harvard: Will you take $27 for this priceless artifact?
Amazingly, the woman in one photo is not even using gloves to touch this ancient document.
It's not an original so much as an official copy. The copies, dated 1300, were created 85 years after the signing of the original Magna Carta in 1215.
Although I suppose the argument is that if you re-affirm the same text several times, that each one is legitimate.
>First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore.
>He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.
But still, it would be weird to say that a copy of the Constitution produced during the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln and re-affirmed by the govt was "an original" even if it otherwise had pedigree.
It may be that Harvard students no longer habeant corpus, but they do habent a corpus of "habeas corpus" corpses.
it appears 27$ for a copy in any economy is an astronomical amount
Copies of the Magna Carta are becoming unaffordable for working-class families.
Yeah Harvard is doing good stuff. I also love listening to Stephen Kotkin. He uses the Socratic method a lot so he just goes a bit from here to there and lets you make up your own mind. Really great historian if you ask me. Very calming to listen to too IMO.
Ezra Klein would sneer at the red tape regulations imposed by a limited monarchy because they "know better" than us plebs how to wield absolute power properly. /s
Are we as a society have become that gullible? Seems more like someone's trying to find a somewhat credible excuse to launder the stolen goods.
https://archive.today/DOZw1