Breathtaking View of History: Up Close and Personal

On Tuesday, December 11, 2007, three copies of the Magna Carta will be on free, public display in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

If you live close or can travel this will be the trip of a lifetime. Most times, these documents cannot be seen by the public.

clipped from www.ox.ac.uk Oxford's Bodleian library holds a quarter of the world’s Magna Cartas A new survey has revealed that nearly a quarter of the world’s original 13th-century manuscripts of Magna Carta are held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. survey, conducted in advance of a Sotheby’s sale of the a Magna Carta belonging to Ross Perot, has found seventeen surviving Charters The Magna Carta (or ‘Great Charter of English Liberties’) is considered one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy. It was agreed by King John at Runnymede in 1215 and reissued throughout the 13th century by England’s rulers. It was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today, and its influence extends to the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. 1217 Charters are a unique historical collection,’ says Sarah Thomas, Bodley’s Librarian. Each Charter originally bore the seals of the guardians of the boy King Henry III