It was apparently in keeping with the general attitude of the Press of Italy towards the Church, that its first headquarters should have been under an ecclesiastical roof. The Guild of Venice was the only book-trade association in Europe the home of which was not entirely under secular control. Unfortunately for Venice, the lease of these convent premises had been made in perpetuity, and perpetual also was the obligation assumed with the premises to perform in them each year a specific number of masses. The expense account of the Guild increased from year to year, and this increasing outlay made requisite an increase in the membership list. The number of members who belonged during the first year of organisation appears to have been about eighty. The average membership during the succeeding years until 1732 was from three hundred to four hundred. In this year, the Guild took into its ranks, in addition to the master-printers and booksellers, master-binders. In 1667, the Guild printed the examination paper prepared for those seeking matriculation as booksellers. This paper probably covered in substance the same range of subjects and the same standard of proficiency as had been in vogue for a number of years previous to its publication. The following are the principal questions for which answers were required: 1st. Name the principal bibles (doubtless the principal editions of the Bible). 2d. Name the principal Saints and Fathers, both Greek and Latin. 3d. Name the principal expositors of Holy Writ. 4th. Name the principal theologians, controversialists, and polemical writers. 5th. Name the principal writers in ecclesiastical history. 6th. Name the ancient writers on philosophy and history; also the principal poets, tragic as well as comic, in Greek and Latin literature. 7th. Name the principal writers on the law of nature, the law of nations, on civil and canon law, on philosophy, metaphysics, and ethics. 8th. Name the principal geographers, Greek, Latin, Italian, and French (the geographical science of Germany, which had already produced some of the most trustworthy maps in existence, was apparently not appreciated). 9th. Name the principal historians, ancient and modern, letter-writers, antiquarians, numismatists, mathematicians, physicians, surgeons, anatomists, and jurists. 10th. Name the principal writers on the fine arts, painting, sculpture, and architecture, civil and military. 11th. Name the principal writers on natural history and botany.