Magna Carta & more at the Legion of Honor

On Saturday we visited the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco to see an original 1217 engrossment of the Magna Carta before the exhibit closed. It was really exciting to see this famous document in the flesh - confirming again how fortunate we are to live in the Bay Area.


This was one of several engrossments (official copies) on parchment provided by the king to the signatory nobles of the original document signed in 1215 by King John. It is in remarkable condition, written in beautiful chancery script with iron gall ink. A bit of it can be seen at the Legion website.


We were newly astonished by the permanent collection, including very famous medieval, Renaissance, & later paintings & sculpture. On display also was a 3rd century Roman mosaic discovered in Lod, Israel. Here Lingling is viewing the installation.


The animal images were exquisite.


Another expiring exhibit was Pulp Fashion- incredible full-size recreations in paper of clothing pictured in old paintings and photos from by-gone eras created by a Belgian artist, Isabelle de Borchgrave.


No photos were allowed, so this is a photo of greeting cards we bought in the giftshop.

More info on the museum at the Legion website.

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Location:Albany, CA, United States