Beschreibung:

By Permission of [the] Trustees of the Cottonian Library. This Plate being a correct Copy of King John's Great Charter..., engraved facsimile of the 1215 Magna Carta, engraved by John Pine single sheet printed on vellum, engraved text in the large central panel, a series of 25 hand-coloured coats of arms of the Barons in columns on either side, heading and dedication panel, and at the foot a panel containing notes and a representation of the remains of King John’s Great Seal, all panels surrounded by hand-coloured oak leaf and acorn borders, folds, extensively creased, margins a little soiled and browned, framed and glazed, print 740 x 510mm., Sold by J. Pine Engraver against little Britain in Aldersgate Street and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, [1733]. *** First printing of the original text of Magna Carta. “... a sacred text, the nearest approach to an irrepealable ‘fundamental statute’ that England has ever had.” - Pollock and Maitland, 1.173. All but three of the statutes have now been repealed. The three that remain are, one clause defending the freedom of the English church, another confirming the liberties and customs of the City of London and other towns and the remaining is the most famous of all: “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 justice.” Taken from one of the two copies owned by Sir Robert Cotton (1 was partially burnt in the fire at Ashburnam House in 1731) and now preserved in the British Library.