![ZENGER, John Peter (1697-1746). [Caption-title:] A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New-York Weekly Journal. [Colophon:] New York: John Peter Zenger, 1736.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01614_0042_000(102404).jpg?w=1)
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ZENGER, John Peter (1697-1746). [Caption-title:] A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New-York Weekly Journal. [Colophon:] New York: John Peter Zenger, 1736.
2o (286 x 190 mm). 40 pages (misnumbered 42). Caption title (as issued) beneath rows of printer's ornaments. (Minor spotting to last leaf, stab holes in extreme gutter margins skilfully renewed.) Modern paper wrappers; silk-lined dark green morocco folding case, gilt-titled. Provenance: Marshall Coyne (his sale Sotheby's New York, June 5, 2001, lot 325).
ZENGER'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS CELEBRATED TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL: A NOTABLE VICTORY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND A PRECEDENT AGAINST JUDICIAL TYRANNY. The acquittal of Zenger, charged with seditious libel at the behest of a corrupt provincial governor and his faction, first established a fundamental principal of law, now axiomatic: that no one can be guilty of libel for speaking the truth. Zenger came to New York from the German Platinate and apprenticed to the successful New York printer William Bradford. He prospered, relocated to Maryland and became the official printer for the colony of Maryland. In 1733 he returned to New York and launched the New-York Weekly Journal, in competition with Bradford's quasi-official Gazette. Zenger's venture was backed by a group of reform-minded New Yorkers opposed to Governor William Cosby and became the mouthpiece of the opposition party. The Governor attempted to have Zenger indicted, but the Grand Jury declined; Cosby ordered him arrested anyway and tried on a charge of seditious libel. The trial opened in August 1735, with Judge De Lancey, one of the Governor's supporters, on the bench. Zenger's brilliant lawyer, Alexander Hamilton, argued for the first time that truth must constitute a defense against libel. At issue, he argued prophetically, was the right of a free people to criticize their rulers. De Lancey insisted that the jury should only rule on whether the material had been published, not its accuracy, but in the end, as Zenger himself recounts: "The Jury withdrew and in a small Time returned and being asked by the Clerk whether they were agreed of their Verdict, and whether John Peter Zenger was guilty of Printing and Publishing the Libels...mentioned? They answered...Not Guilty. Upon which there were three Huzzas in the Hall which was crowded with People and the next Day I was discharged from my Imprisonment" (p. 40).
VERY RARE: this copy is the only example that has appeared at auction in the last 100 years; only five institutions possess copies. Evans 4107; Howes Z-6 ("b"); McCoy Freedom of the Press Z-5; Rutherfurd, p. 249; Sabin 106304.
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ZENGER'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS CELEBRATED TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL: A NOTABLE VICTORY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND A PRECEDENT AGAINST JUDICIAL TYRANNY. The acquittal of Zenger, charged with seditious libel at the behest of a corrupt provincial governor and his faction, first established a fundamental principal of law, now axiomatic: that no one can be guilty of libel for speaking the truth. Zenger came to New York from the German Platinate and apprenticed to the successful New York printer William Bradford. He prospered, relocated to Maryland and became the official printer for the colony of Maryland. In 1733 he returned to New York and launched the New-York Weekly Journal, in competition with Bradford's quasi-official Gazette. Zenger's venture was backed by a group of reform-minded New Yorkers opposed to Governor William Cosby and became the mouthpiece of the opposition party. The Governor attempted to have Zenger indicted, but the Grand Jury declined; Cosby ordered him arrested anyway and tried on a charge of seditious libel. The trial opened in August 1735, with Judge De Lancey, one of the Governor's supporters, on the bench. Zenger's brilliant lawyer, Alexander Hamilton, argued for the first time that truth must constitute a defense against libel. At issue, he argued prophetically, was the right of a free people to criticize their rulers. De Lancey insisted that the jury should only rule on whether the material had been published, not its accuracy, but in the end, as Zenger himself recounts: "The Jury withdrew and in a small Time returned and being asked by the Clerk whether they were agreed of their Verdict, and whether John Peter Zenger was guilty of Printing and Publishing the Libels...mentioned? They answered...Not Guilty. Upon which there were three Huzzas in the Hall which was crowded with People and the next Day I was discharged from my Imprisonment" (p. 40).
VERY RARE: this copy is the only example that has appeared at auction in the last 100 years; only five institutions possess copies. Evans 4107; Howes Z-6 ("b"); McCoy Freedom of the Press Z-5; Rutherfurd, p. 249; Sabin 106304.