Obj. ID: 38930
Jewish printed books Otzar ha-Chochmah ve-HaMeda'. Toldot ha-Esh veha-Mayim o Pe'ulat Koach ha-Kitor ha-Meimi by Tzvi Hacohen Rabinowitz, Vilna, 1876
This text was prepared by William Gross:
"Yesodei Chochmat Hateva Hak'lalit / Otzar HaChochma VeHamada", by Zvi Hirsh ben Meir Hacohen Rabinovitch,Vilnius, 1867, 1876. Three parts in three volumes:
1. First volume: "Sefer HaMenucha veHaTenua…". With a long poetic and rhymed dedication, in the author's fine handwriting, to the head of Alliance Israélite Universelle , the French statesman Yitzchak Adolphe Crémieux. Good condition. A particularly nice copy. Gilt edges. 2. Second volume: "Sefer HaHarkava VeHahafrada or Chochmat HaKame'a…with two hundred and twelve drawings, including 185 woodcuts". Fair-good condition. Stains. Wear and significant creases to borders of leaves. 3. Third volume: "Sefer Toldot HaEsh VeHamayim…with two hundred and twenty drawings, including 189 woodcuts"
This is the third volume in the series of a basic science text with many illustrations, There are other books by the same author in the Gross Family Collection as a series of science books. There is the prospectus for this book in the collection as well.
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.