Event Courses and Workshops The 1300 Magna Carta and Carta de Forest: Revealing the Past
Date and Location
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When: Thursday, December 8, 2022
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST
This event will be livestreamed on zoomgov.com External. It will be available for viewing afterwards in the Library's Event Videos collection.
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Where: Online Only
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.
Join us for a celebration of Human Rights Day as we discuss two foundational legal documents, Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest.
Magna Carta was issued in June 1215, the first document to put into writing the principles that the king and the government was not above the law. Magna Carta was intended to prevent the king from exploiting regal powers, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a unique and accountable authority. The Sandwich Magna Carta was discovered in 2015, 800 years later, in a Victorian scrapbook along with an original Charter of the Forest.
The Forest Charter was issued to complement Magna Carta and regulate the administration of large sections of England governed under forest rather than common law.
The Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) at the Library of Congress had the opportunity through a collaborative agreement, to explore and recover damaged original text and understand the background of these significant documents. This panel, which includes Chris Woods and Library preservationists Jake Nadal and Fenella France, will discuss the history of the charters and what the heritage science analyses could reveal, centuries later.