Quiz of the Day - 30 October 2012

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Here comes a question from a different time altogether, but relevant as of today.

What you can see on the right hand side is a photograph of one of only four surviving exemplifications of the original text. The texts have long been popularly perceived as the original symbol of freedom.

What is being talked about and shown in the photograph?

You can leave your answer as comment below the thread. Alternatively, you may mail your answer to shovon76[at]gmail[dot]com. The comments will be moderated for a period of 24 hours and will be published along with the answer.

Cheers!

Answer: The answer is Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England. It is an Angevin charter, originally issued in Latin in the year 1215, translated into vernacular-French as early as 1219, and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions. Magna Carta is Latin for Great Charter. The later versions excluded the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority that had been present in the 1215 charter. The charter first passed into law in 1225; the 1297 version, with the long title (originally in Latin) "The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest," still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.

The photo shows one of the only four surviving exemplifications of the 1215 text, Cotton MS. Augustus II. 106, property of the British Library.
Ali cracks this question with elan. :)