26 September 2007

Can I borrow 30 million dollars? I'llpayyouback,Iswear.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through reading 1215, so imagine my surprise at reading in today's news that a late 13th century copy of the Magna Carta is going up for auction. For a mere $20 - $30M, you can own your very own Great Charter.

And I really need to spend more time at the National Archive. When I was about 12 my Mom bought me a membership in the Archive and, packrat that I am,* I still have some of the membership documents they sent me. At least, I think I do. But they've had Ross Perot's Carta on loan and on display for several years now and I ... I don't think I've seen it. I've admired the Declaration of Independence, but, heck, that's an 18th century document, practically yesterday.

In other medieval news, historian Jonathan Rubenstein of the University of Tennessee/Knoxville was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant for "shining vivid light on how violent events such as the First Crusade are recorded and remembered by future generations."

This is, of course, a great honor and I would be the last person to sneer at a cool half mil, but it's not going to be enough to land Dr. Rubenstein his own for-keeps copy of King John's Least Favorite Document.


* Can you see why she would sign me up for that particular institution?

1 comment:

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