Pierwsze lata działalności oficyny żydowskiej w Żółkwi (1692-1705)
First Years of Operation of Jewish Printing House in Żółkiew (1692-1705)

Summary/Abstract: In the 16th and 17th centuries the history of Jewish printing in the Republic of Poland boils down to the history of printing shops operating in the royal cities of Kraków and Lublin. Despite the efforts launched by the Jews to start new shops in Poznań and Zamość, nothing came out of it. The situation changed toward the end of the 17th century, when printing houses in Lublin and Kraków stopped printing Hebrew and Yiddish books. Then King John III Sobieski gave his consent to the establishment of a new Jewish printing shop in Żółkiew, his private town. This is when the famous Amsterdam printer Uri Fayvush Halevi came to Poland, who already earlier produced books destined for the polish market, similarly as other Jewish printers active in Amsterdam. Between 1692 and 1705 it published some 20 titles in Poland. The Council of Four Lands looked at the situation that emerged after the new publishing house was established in 1696 and 1699, issuing a relevant ordinance on either occasion. Some years later Fayvush returned to Amsterdam and the Żółkiew printing establishment was taken over by his grandsons. It became the largest Hebrew printing house in Poland and for close to 70 years it was the only Jewish printing shop to operate in the country.

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