Skip to main content

Secondary sourceBook1759

Blackstone's 1759 Edition of The Great Charter, Dedication Page

William Blackstone · 1759

The dedication page of William Blackstone's 1759 scholarly edition of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest, dedicated to the Earl of Westmorland.

This is Blackstone's scholarly edition of Magna Carta, not the original charter, showing how it was studied and published later.

Ask Magna Carta about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Photograph of the dedication page of William Blackstone's 1759 edition of The Great Charter and Charter of the Forest. A coat of arms with a crest and motto 'Nec Temere Nec Timide' sits above centered decorative calligraphic text dedicating the edition to the Earl of Westmorland, signed by William Blackstone. The page is cream-colored.
William Blackstone, dedication page of The Great Charter and Charter of the Forest, 1759. Photographed 2014.

About this source

What it is

This is the dedication page from an 18th-century printed edition of The Great Charter (Magna Carta) and the Charter of the Forest, edited by the English jurist William Blackstone and published in 1759 at Oxford's Clarendon Press. The ornate page carries a coat of arms and a dedication to the Earl of Westmorland.

Why it matters

Blackstone was one of the most important legal scholars in English history, and his edition shows how seriously Magna Carta was still studied more than five centuries after it was first agreed. By carefully editing and republishing the charter, Blackstone helped keep its ideas about liberty and law alive for later generations of lawyers and students.

Look closer

  • Why might a legal scholar dedicate his edition of an old charter to a nobleman?
  • What does the decorative coat of arms suggest about how important this book was meant to seem?
  • Why do you think people in the 1700s still cared about a document from 1215?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Magna Carta on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Magna Carta sources

Meet the AI Magna Carta →
Photograph of the 1215 Magna Carta parchment, a dense page of handwritten medieval Latin in brownish ink with line breaks and a small marginal number at top left.Document

Primary source

Magna Carta (1215 Exemplification)

1215

Photograph of a round brown wax seal impression with a raised equestrian figure of a rider on horseback, attached by a cream parchment tag with two long tails hanging from its base. A faint inscription appears around the edge.Document

Primary source

Articles of the Barons

1215

Photograph of a medieval parchment charter covered in dense brown-black handwritten Latin text in columns, with a dark green wax seal on a tan cord at the bottom showing a seated mounted knight. This is the 1225 Charter of the Forest.Document

Primary source

Charter of the Forest

1217

Photograph of a large medieval parchment document covered in handwritten Latin text in brown ink, with a red wax seal hanging on a strip of parchment tabs at the bottom. Several small holes and tears are visible along the edges.Document

Primary source

Magna Carta 1297 (National Archives, Washington)

Edward I of England · 1297

A parchment document with a dangling wax seal, displayed under glass in a wooden frame inside a case with wood-paneled walls. The seal hangs from the lower edge of the document.Document

Primary source

Magna Carta 1297 (Parliament House, Canberra)

Edward I of England · 1297

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Magna Carta now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions