Memory of the World (UNESCO)

This web page will tell you more about the inclusion of the Constitutio Antoniniana papyrus in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

The Constitutio Antoniniana papyrus was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2017; at the beginning of 2018, the register listed a total of 427 documents [Source].

Zertifikat der UNESCOCertificate of inscription on the Memory of the World list, scan by Barbara Zimmermann, University Library of the University of Giessen.

The world’s only surviving document with the original wording of the Constitutio Antoniniana edict is the Papyrus Gissensis 40. It is the oldest in a series of historically significant documents from the history of citizenship, civil rights, and human rights law that include, for example, the Magna Charta (1215), the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV (1356), and the French National Assembly’s Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789).

Logo combined mow international register blue english
Combined Logos of Memory of the World + UNESCO, by unesco.


Created in 1992, the UNESCO Memory of the World Register lists selected outstanding documents; valuable book collections; manuscripts; music scores; image, sound and film documents; and other unique items of historical interest. Its aim is to preserve documentary records of exceptional value and make them digitally accessible.

Links to the Constitutio Antoniniana on UNESCO websites:

You will find more information on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register here at Wikipedia.

More information on the general topic of citizenship is in the >>next section<<.
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