The biggest exhibition on Magna Carta opens in British Library

LONDON Mar. 17 (People's Daily Online)—— Exhibition "Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy" opened on 13 March and runs until 1 September 2015 at the British Library. It unites over 200 exhibits, including two of the four surviving 1215 Magna Carta manuscripts, artworks, medieval manuscripts, Royal remains, weaponry and 800 year old garments.

The exhibition invites us to consider why Magna Carta is so important today and why it is often hailed as the foundation of democracy, even though the idea of democracy would doubtless have horrified the barons, let alone King John.

Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Delaware copy of the US Bill of Rights, two of the most iconic documents in American history, will be in the UK for the first time and on display. On display will also be little known government papers from the British Cabinet in 1941 proposing to give one of the original 1215 Magna Carta documents to the USA in return for their support in World War Two.

Co-curator of the exhibition, Dr Claire Breay, says: "Magna Carta was not conceived as a democratic document, but as a practical solution to a political crisis 800 years ago. The exhibition challenges visitors to consider what Magna Carta has meant over time, how it acquired its iconic status and meaning, and why it is still so resonant 800 years after it was first granted."

On display will also be the earliest account of what happened when the King met the Barons at Runnymede and Magna Carta was agreed. This account was recently re-discovered at the British Library in the Melrose Chronicle, a medieval manuscript written by monks at Melrose Abbey in Scotland.

Julian Harrison, co-curator of the exhibition, comments: "We hope that, by seeing Magna Carta alongside other documents it has inspired — including the Declaration of Independence and US Bill of Rights — our visitors will be encouraged to reflect on the charter’s influence over the past 800 years and what it means to them today. Magna Carta established for the first time that everybody was subject to the law and that nobody, not even the king, was above the law, principles that we often take for granted."