Salisbury Magna Carta goes on display in London

A detail of the Salisbury Magna Carta – one of the four original surviving Magna Carta manuscripts – have been brought together by the British Library for the first time. The manuscript went on display at the library during a media preview in London today.

The Salisbury Magna Carta. Image by (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

The event marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which established the timeless principle that no individual, even a monarch, is above the law.

Robert Key, chairman of Salisbury Cathedral’s Magna Carta 800th anniversary committee, said they were proud to be the owners of the best preserved of the four surviving original 1215 documents.

The four original surviving copies of the Magna Carta brought together for the first time, on display at the British Library in central London, as part of its 800th anniversary. Image by Clare Kendall/British Library/PA Wire

They were aware, he stated, of the importance the Magna Carta was to people from across the globe as well as “what it represents for them,” he added.

The 1215 Magna Carta is inscribed in the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ register. This emphasisesd the fact that the documents held by Salisbury Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral and The British Library are seen as some of the world’s most significant documentary heritage.

Examining the Salisbury Magna Carta document Image by Clare Kendall/British Library/PA Wire

The Dean of Salisbury, the Very Rev June Osborne, said the cathedral also had plans to promote the values and ideals that the manuscript represents.

(Press Association)