Further, all candidates must be able to read and write Italian fluently, and must have a thorough knowledge of Latin and a working knowledge of French. Greek was not required, but was commended as a useful accomplishment. (In the retail shop attached to the office of Aldus, one or more salesmen had been required who could talk intelligently to Greek scholars about their editions of the Greek classics; but this was two hundred and thirty years earlier.) In addition to the above series of questions on scholarship, the examiners were instructed to make test of the candidates’ practical knowledge of the methods of booksellers’ business. If these examinations were carried out with any degree of thoroughness, the booksellers of Venice must assuredly have been entitled to rank with the scholars of the world. We find no such high standards enforced in Paris, Leipzig, or in London, although in the two former publishing centres at least, the standard of scholarly attainment and of general knowledge of literature in the book-trade has always been high. It is hardly necessary to remark that the application of any such severe test to the booksellers of to-day would empty the bookshops of nearly all of the trade centres of the world, leaving a dozen or more exceptions among the older traders in the University towns of North Germany. The examinations for master-printers were also, if we may trust the records, both comprehensive and thorough. We have already seen, however, that notwithstanding examinations and regulations, the Guild had not succeeded in keeping Venetian printing of the seventeenth century up to the standard established by Aldus and his associates at the beginning of the sixteenth. In the year 1767, the _Rifformatori_ turned their attention to the over-crowding and overproduction in the book-trade, declaring it to be their intention to regulate the supply through the demand. The first clause of the law of July 29th forbids the articling of new apprentices for the ensuing fifteen years. Sons and heirs are prohibited from entering the Guild during the lifetime of their fathers or those whom they will succeed. No one may open a shop or establish a press without first satisfying the magistracy that there is room or need for such shop or press. Booksellers or printers of the mainland who wish to enter the Guild in Venice, must close their mainland shop or press before they can be admitted. The copyright in new books, which, by the law of 1603, had been fixed at twenty years’ duration is now extended to thirty years, and for reissues it is extended from ten to thirteen years. Venetian printers must reach the market through Venetian book-sellers, and are forbidden to sell to foreign booksellers or to dealers in Venice not members of the Guild.