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The Great Charter Called in Latyn Magna Carta, 1542 Printing

Thomas Petyt · 1542

A Tudor-era printed edition of Magna Carta alongside other old statutes, published in London in 1542.

A later printed edition showing how Magna Carta's text was preserved and circulated in Tudor England.

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Title page of an early printed book in black-letter type within an ornate woodcut border of columns, scrolls, and cherubs. Title reads: The great Charter called in Latyn Magna Carta, with diuers olde statutes whose titles appere in the next leafe. Newly corrected. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.
The Great Charter called in Latyn Magna Carta, printed by Thomas Petyt, London, 1542.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of a printed book from 1542, titled The Great Charter called in Latyn Magna Carta, with diuers olde statutes. It was printed in London by Thomas Petyt and combines Magna Carta with other older English statutes. The page is decorated with an ornate woodcut border of columns, scrolls, and cherubs.

Why it matters

By the Tudor period, Magna Carta was already being reprinted and studied as part of England's legal tradition. This edition shows how the charter continued to circulate in print, allowing lawyers, students, and officials of the 1500s to read and reference a document originally agreed between King John and his nobles more than three centuries earlier.

Look closer

  • Why do you think printers combined Magna Carta with other old statutes in one book?
  • What does the decorative border suggest about how valuable or important this printed book was considered?
  • How might reading Magna Carta in a printed Tudor book differ from reading the original 1215 document?

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.

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