=The Guild of Printers and Booksellers=, 1549-1595.--The organisation into a guild of the printers and publishers of Venice was an important event in the history of literary property in Italy. This guild was the earliest trade association of book-men in Europe, the decree for its institution bearing date 1548-9, or six years earlier than the charter of Queen Mary of England, under which was incorporated the Stationers’ Company. The publishers of Germany had organised the Frankfort book-fair (in connection with the general Fair) as early as 1500, but this organisation had not yet taken the shape of a guild. The _Libraires jurés_ of Paris, comprising members of the University, organised as a division of the University, and subject to the control of the University authorities, cannot, at least in its earlier stages, be classed as a trade guild. The Guild of Venice had, as we have seen, been brought into existence not merely for the protection of trade interests, but for the purpose of facilitating the work of the State and of the Church in keeping a close supervision upon all the productions of the Press, and of promptly suppressing those likely to prove pernicious. The regulations framed by the Guild and the enactments secured by it were of service in defining literary property and in protecting copyrights, but this result was rather an incidental than an essential part of its work. Seventeen years elapsed after the decree of 1548, before the organisation of the corporation was fully completed through the formulation of its by-laws; but from various references during that time, it seems evident that shortly after 1548, an association was in existence with a President and a Council, exercising some general supervision over the printers and publishers. When the Guild was finally organised, it appears to have been a more official and more authoritative body than the London Company of Stationers. Its officers comprised a prior, two councillors, six assessors, a secretary, and a beadle. Membership in the Guild was compulsory upon all master-printers, publishers, and booksellers, and each member was to pay annually the sum of one lira, five soldi. The list of officials included two syndics, one of whom was to be present at each election and to administer the oath of office to the new officers. No member was permitted to decline either nomination or election, under a penalty of ten ducats. No member of the Guild could hold office unless during five years previous he had been a master-printer or had kept a book-shop. The by-laws of the Guild were called _Mariegole_, a term which is said to come from _Matricule_, or matriculation books.