A History and Defence of Magna Charta, title page

What it is

This is the title page of A History and Defence of Magna Charta, printed in London in 1769 for J. Bell, with S. Bladon and C. Etherington. It is set in a long, multi-line serif title. The title says the book contains the original charter with an English translation, an account of how it was obtained from King John, and an essay on Parliaments. Handwritten ink inscriptions at the top name Ephraim Eliot, John F. Eliot (1830) and Thomas D. Eliot (1842), showing the book's later owners.

Why it matters

The book was written long after King John agreed the charter in 1215. It shows how eighteenth-century writers studied the charter as a basis for English liberty and for the rights confirmed later, such as the Bill of Rights. Its owners' names show that the book passed through private hands in the nineteenth century.

Look closer

• What does the long title tell you about what the author wanted readers to believe?
• What can the handwritten names teach us about who read this book and when?
• Why might a book defending the charter be written so long after the events it describes?