Magna Carta
2015 marks the 800th
anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, and a copy of the first engraved
version, published by John Pine some 500 years later could sell for £15,000
when it goes under the hammer at Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday 21st May in
the auctioneer’s bi-annual
Important Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper sale.Magna Carta is recognised as one of the most important and most celebrated legal documents in the English-speaking world.
Compiled in 1215, principally on behalf of baronial rebels against King John, Magna Carta was re-issued several times in the 13th century, and over the centuries has been reinterpreted to form the foundation of some of the legal rights we enjoy today.
It is unknown how many copies of the 1215 Magna Carta were issued, but four copies are known to have survived: one in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral and two are preserved in the British Library.
The example in the forthcoming May auction is an early 18th century engraved copy of one of the original 1215 Magna Carta texts now housed at the British Library.
Engraved by John Pine on vellum, with 25 hand-coloured coats of arms, it contains the famous clause “No man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, Nor will we proceed with force against him, except by lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land, To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or injustice.”
Copies of Pine's engraving appear only infrequently at auction and this one is expected to fetch £10,000-15,000 when it is auctioned at Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday 21st May [Lot 201].
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Rare golden ?Koran? on show in New Zealand
A
200-year-old “golden Koran”, which contains pages layered in gold, will be
displayed at Auckland's central library next month after some Arabic
manuscripts that came with it were translated for the first time.
The handwritten Koran was one of the items donated to the library early in the 20th century by Auckland bibliophile Henry Shaw, who died in 1928.
The full translations will be revealed at a May 28 public seminar, led by Dr Ali, to be held at the central library. The golden Koran and the manuscripts will be displayed for two weeks in the special collections reading room after the seminar along with two other rare Korans.
The handwritten Koran was one of the items donated to the library early in the 20th century by Auckland bibliophile Henry Shaw, who died in 1928.
The full translations will be revealed at a May 28 public seminar, led by Dr Ali, to be held at the central library. The golden Koran and the manuscripts will be displayed for two weeks in the special collections reading room after the seminar along with two other rare Korans.
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Consolation of Philosophy
An
academic who was visiting a Scottish university has discovered the oldest
surviving non-biblical Scottish manuscript in a vault. The 12th century copy of
Boethius’s “Consolation of Philosophy” was found in Glasgow University’s
Special Collections by Dr Kylie Murray, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
from Balliol College, Oxford, who is currently at Glasgow on a visiting
fellowship.
The university’s Special Collections is one of Britain’s largest collections of old manuscripts with over 200,000 manuscript items and around 200,000 printed works, 1,000 of which are “incunabula” – books produced in the earliest stages of printing from movable type.
The Consolation of Philosophy is thought to have been written in 524 AD by Boethius, a statesman of the late Roman Empire, while he was awaiting execution for a crime he did not commit.
The university’s Special Collections is one of Britain’s largest collections of old manuscripts with over 200,000 manuscript items and around 200,000 printed works, 1,000 of which are “incunabula” – books produced in the earliest stages of printing from movable type.
The Consolation of Philosophy is thought to have been written in 524 AD by Boethius, a statesman of the late Roman Empire, while he was awaiting execution for a crime he did not commit.
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