Many copies of Magna Carta were made each time it was issued, so that all the participants could have one. With the 1215 edition, one copy went to the Royal Archives, one to the Cinque Ports (ports with certain privileges) and one for the (then 40) counties. Four contemporaneous copies or “exemplifications” still remain – two are in the British Library and both Salisbury Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral own a copy.

All four declare themselves to have been "given by our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede between Windsor and Staines on the 15th day of June in the 17th year of our reign" (1215). Each differs slightly in size, shape and text.

Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral’s copy (currently on display at Lincoln Castle) has a history at Lincoln since 1216, as the Bishop of Lincoln was one of the signatories to the Magna Carta.

We hear of it in 1800 when the Chapter Clerk of the Cathedral reported that he held it in the Common Chamber and in 1848 it was shown to a visiting group who reported it as “hanging on the wall in an oak frame in beautiful preservation”. 

It went to the New York World Fair in 1939 and became a sensation. Fourteen million people queued to see the parchment before it had to be held in Fort Knox, next to the original of the US Constitution, until the end of the second world war. Having returned to Lincoln, it has since been back to America on various occasions.

British Library
The British Library's collection includes two of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta, and the unique document presented by the barons to King John at Runnymede, known as the Articles of the Barons.

Both copies came into the possession of the library with the valuable collection of papers which belonged to Sir Robert Cotton. To read more about the Cotton Library, click here. One was given to Cotton by the barrister Humphrey Wyems on January 1, 1629, and one account stated it had been found in a London tailor's shop. 

The other was found in Dover Castle in around 1630, and was damaged by fire in 1731. According to contemporary chronicles, copies were distributed to bishops, sheriffs and others throughout the land, but the exact number of copies sent out from the royal chancery in 1215 is not known.

Salisbury Cathedral
The chapter house displays what is considered by some to be the best-preserved of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta. This copy came to Salisbury because Elias of Dereham, who was present at Runnymede in 1215, was given the task of distributing some of the original copies. Later, Elias became a Canon of Salisbury and supervised the construction of Salisbury Cathedral.

Overseas

• In 1952 the Australian Government purchased a 1297 copy of Magna Carta for £12,500. This copy is now on display in the Members' Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.
  
  
• In September 1984, The Perot Foundation in Texas purchased a copy of the 1297 issue of Magna Carta. This copy is on indefinite loan to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.
  
  
• Thirteen other versions of Magna Carta, dating to 1297 or earlier, survive - including four from 1297. Durham Cathedral possesses the copies of 1216, 1217 and 1225.