Tisza-Eszlár (Napi Ertesíto) A Tisza-Eszlári Bunper Végtárgyalása Alkalmából, Nr.1-29 (Daily Report on the Occasion of the Final Hearings of the Tiszaeszlár Criminal Case, Nr.1-29) [BOUND WITH] Vad es Ved-Beszedek a Tisza-Eszlari Bunper Vegtargyalasa Alkalmából (Closing Arguments of the Prosecution and Defense) [WITH] An Additional Volume Containing Images from the Trial (A COLLECTION OF 2 VOLS.)
Nyíregyháza: Nyírvidék (Nyomtatott Pringer és Joba Könyvnyomdajaban), 1883. First edition. Hardcover. Folio. [342] 68pp. Bound in 3/4 black buckram over beige buckram boards with gilt lettering on the spine. The contents of this single scarce volume provide the most reliable primary source and contemporary transcript of the infamous anti-Semitic Tiszaeszlár blood libel trial of 1883.
On April 1st, 1882, in the Hungarian village of Tiszaeszlár, a 14 year old Christian girl named Eszter Solymosi disappear while out on an errand. Shockingly soon after here disappearance, and a fruitless search effort, rumors began to spread that members of the local Jewish community had murdered her and used her blood in rituals for the upcoming Passover holiday (a classic anti-Semitic trope for centuries). This accusation led to the arrested of 13 Jews, as the criminal legal proceedings and investigations commenced. In June, the drowned body of a 14-year old girl who many had identified as Eszter Solymosi, and wearing clothes identified as hers, washed up on the banks of the Tisza river, in a nearby town. This lead to ludicrous accusations of a further Jewish conspiracy to hide their crimes. After much back and forth, and many complications, the trial commencing in late June of the following year, marking the first formal legal prosecution of such a blood libel case in European history.
All of these prolonged investigations and the ensuing trial sent Hungarian society into hysteria and upheaval. The criminal trial was held between June and October of 1883, and took place amidst a tense atmosphere of anti-Semitic propaganda and agitation. The most striking and powerful moments of the trial came during defense counsel Karoly Eotvos's impassioned closing arguments, which notably lasted seven hours and relied on the most up to date and modern forensic investigative techniques of the the time. The case ultimately ended on August 3rd, resulting in the acquittal of all defendants, and the ruling that the testimony of the principal witnesses for the prosecution, Jewish brothers 5 year old Samuel, and 14 year old Moric Scharf, had been coerced.
Published in the nearby city of Nyíregyháza, Hungary, Elek Joba's daily bulletin, records the transcript and proceedings of the trial from June 19th- August 3rd 1883, and is revelatory in its unbiased, objective and reliable reporting, sticking solely to the facts. This is impressive considering the social atmosphere under which much of the media, press and general Hungarian public were operating at the time. The paper was published on each day of the trial, with shorthand courtroom reports, edited, set, and published multiple times per day. From the fifth issue onward new bulletins were issued in the form of supplementary sections of two or four pages in length, without full titled headpieces, relying on simple one line headers, stating the issue numbers along the very top of the margin of the page. The closing arguments are only very briefly summarized in final issue of this periodical. The full content of these arguments was published separately in the 68-page publication, which has been bound-in to this volume.
Text throughout printed in Hungarian in a two-column format.
Binding with some minor to light staining and rippling at the bottom of the front cover. Front cover lightly bowed. Interior with age toning, and some light closed tears to pages, mostly in the margins. Fist text page has been reinforced along the gutter with scotch tape. Pages throughout this volume including both the unpaginated bulletin section as well as the paginated final section have received a continuous pagination throughout in red pen in the upper corners, from a previous owner. Pages throughout slightly brittle to one degree or another. Book block tight overall. Binding in very good-, interior in good+ to very good- condition overall. Extremely scarce.
[WITH]
Maroon textured buckram slipcase. 3/4 decorative cloth over period decorative paper covered boards, with a printed white paper label pasted on the spine. An additional volume containing a series of 11 period b/w photographs showing illustrated depictions of primary figures involved in the case, created by Hungarian painter and illustrator Ábrányi Lajos (1849-1901), who served as an official sketch artist for the trial. People depicted include the mother and sister of Eszter Solymosi, defendant József Scharf, Móric Scharf and defense attorney Karoly Eotvos, as well as other court officials and lawyers. All of these prints are shots of sections of pages from the book "Der Process von Tisza-Eszlar" (Vienna, Hartleben, 1883) a German-language account of the proceedings of the trial. Each is mounted on a heavy-stock cardboard plate. These are bound with an incomplete collection of 22 of 29 issues of Tisza-Eszlár (The Daily Trial Reports). Some of these issues have been trimmed at the bottom margin, resulting in occasional loss of text. There are a number of more recent Hungarian press clippings about the trial laid in at the front of the volume. Binding with some rubbing to extremities, as well as some scratches and abrasions to the covers. Pages of the newspaper issues are age toned with occasional closed tears, creasing and/or staining. Photographic plates are mostly clean and in very good condition. Binding in good+, interior in good- to very good condition overall. g+ to vg-. Item #47646
* An extremely scarce publication with only one listing on OCLC.
Price: $4,500.00