Documentation

Two nice stories today from the domain of antiquarian relics.

• The BBC is reporting that Michelangelo's last sketch, depicting the stone work for St. Peter's Bascillica, has been found in a Vatican archive.
• The NYT is reporting that the Magna Carta is for sale. Apparently they mean a copy of the early British law, not the law itself. There's a cool feature where you can look at a high resolution image of the actual document. Although owning such a document would be pretty sweet, I am told that the Magna Carta was deemed important only retroactively, after it had been rediscovered. In other words, it's a pure fiction that the document is a "foundational" text of modern democracy. But, hey, if Sotheby's thinks it "forever changed the relationship between the monarchy and those it governed," that's just great. But it's a lie. Bid away!