Usage and spelling
Since there is no direct, consistent correlate of the English definite article in Latin, the usual academic convention is to refer to the document in English without the article as "Magna Carta" rather than "the Magna Carta". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written appearance of the term was in 1218: "Concesserimus libertates quasdam scriptas in Magna Carta nostra de libertatibus." (Latin: "We concede the certain liberties here written in our great charter of liberties.") However, "the Magna Carta" is also frequently used.
In the past, the document has also been referred to as "Magna Charta".
Copies
Numerous copies were made each time it was issued, so all of the participants would each have one — in the case of the 1215 copy, one for the royal archives, one for the Cinque Ports, and one for each of the 40 counties of the time. Several of those copies still exist and some are on permanent display. If there ever was one single 'master copy' of Magna Carta sealed by King John in 1215, it has not survived. Four contemporaneous copies (known as "exemplifications") remain, all of which are located in the UK:
The 'burnt copy', which was found in the records of Dover Castle in the 17th century and so is assumed to be the copy that was sent to the Cinque Ports. It was subsequently involved at a house fire at its owner's property, making it all but illegible. It is the only one of the four to have its seal surviving, although this too was melted out of shape in the fire. It is currently held by the British Library
Another supposedly original, but possibly amended version of the Magna Carta is on show just outside of the chamber of the House of Lords situated in Westminster Palace.
One owned by Lincoln Cathedral, normally on display at Lincoln Castle. It has an unbroken attested history at Lincoln since 1216. We hear of it in 1800 when the Chapter Clerk of the Cathedral reported that he held it in the Common Chamber, and then nothing until 1846 when the Chapter Clerk of that time moved from within the Cathedral to a property just outside.
In 1848, Magna Carta was shown to a visiting group who reported it as “hanging on the wall in an oak frame in beautiful preservation”. It went to the New York World Fair in 1939 and so had to be held in Fort Knox, next to the original of the US Constitution, until the end of the Second World War. Having returned to Lincoln, it has been back to America on various occasions since then.
It was not on display for a time to undergo conservation in preparation for its visit to America, where it was exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia from March 30 to June 18, 2007 in recognition of the Jamestown quadricentennial.[10][11] From July 4 to July 25, the document was displayed at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, returning to Lincoln Castle afterwards.
One owned by and displayed at Salisbury Cathedral.
Other early versions of Magna Carta survive. Durham Cathedral possesses 1216, 1217, and 1225 copies.
Magna Carta Place, within Canberra, Australia's Parliamentary Triangle opened on 24 May 2003.In 1952 the Australian Government purchased a 1297 copy of Magna Carta for £12,500.
This copy is now on display in the Members' Hall of Parliament House, Canberra. In January 2006, it was announced by the Department of Parliamentary Services that the document had been revalued down from A$40m to A$15m. It is interesting to note that this copy has a large stain on it, whose origin is explained on the Government run tour of Parliament House. A historian who while examining the document spilled a cup of coffee on this valuable document caused this.
In September 1984, the Perot Foundation purchased another copy of the 1297 issue of Magna Carta. This copy was loaned to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. until September 2007. The Perot Foundation plans to sell this copy in order to
“have funds available for medical research, for improving public education and for
assisting wounded soldiers and their families.”
