Magna Carta.

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 column on either side of text with a series of 25 hand-coloured coats of arms of the Barons, heading and dedication panel, and at the foot a panel containing notes and a representation of the remains of King John’s Great Seal, a fine bright copy, image 695 x 480mm., borders trimmed to 710 x 495mm., mounted on acid-free board., a fine copy, 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. A fine engraving of the most celebrated legal document in the English-speaking world, taken from one of the two original copies owned by Sir Robert Cotton, now in the British Museum.