Milton and the Magna Carta

Well, this week at the Bodleian Library there were two interesting exhibitions. The first was a one day showing of some 13th century manuscripts of the Magna Carta. I wouldn't have known, but evidently there are 17 manuscripts from the 13th century, and we have four of them in Oxford (3 from 1217, and a fourth from 1225). Unfortunately, we don't have the 1215 original, but it was still pretty amazing to see these things (they were displayed, by the way, in the Divinity School at the Bodleian Library, which evidently is the Hogwart's Infirmary!).



The other surprise was a new exhibit on John Milton. They had first editions of his works, some things written in his own hand, and a number of pieces reacting to him through the centuries. I had no idea that he was such a politically engaged figure. Fascinating. Also, one corner of the exhibit for some reason had a display about John Wesley, including a hand-written Scripture memory verse card of his that read, of all things, "Let us move on unto perfection" (Heb 6:1). How fitting for Wesley!