Obj. ID: 39562
Jewish printed books Catalog and Price List, Vilna, 1896
This text was prepared by William Gross:
Catalogue of "The widow and brothers Romm" printing press in Vilnius. Vilnius, 1896. Hebrew, with some Yiddish and Russian. Price lists of books for delivery "by coachmen, railroad, or by mail". Next to each book - its price with no binding, and the prices of various bindings. Appearing also are lists of books printed by others, translated books and Yiddish books.
A most interesting list of 463 books offered by the publisher Romm in Vilnius from their own presses and another 666 books from other publishers. The romm press was an extremely large enterprise and the building in which it was housed still stands in Vilnius to give witness to a major Jewish publisher and printer in the 19th century. The Romm press was founded in at the end of the 18th century
During the nineteenth century, when the Jewish world center of print moved to Eastern Europe, and the social place and function of women improved, there were 24 women active in Hebrew printing and publishing, 17 of whom were in Eastern Europe. A substantial number of printing houses came to be run by widows, the most famous of whom was the Widow (Dvoyre) Romm, who exerted substantial control over the great Lithuanian publishing house from 1860 until her death in 1903. In at least one case, a major Hebrew press, in Lwów, was founded and run from 1788 to 1805 by a woman, Yudis Rosanes, who came from the Żółkiew line of Uri Fayvesh ha-Levi.