Obj. ID: 37735  Chumash ba-Midbar, Vilna, 1878

This text was prepared by William Gross:

This is a part of the Tanach as published by the famous Romm press in Vilnius. The title page of the book of the Bible is decorated with many images from Biblical stories, including the Akedah. The title page is copied from an earlier edition printed in Vienna in 1856, and my actually be the same printing plate.
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.

This title page was copied from the Vienna edition of 1859, see here.