The presses of Venice were dangerous not only because they were being utilised by the scholars of Greece, but because they were bringing into print also works in Arabic, in Hebrew, in Persian, and in Chaldean. In the Index lists as printed in Rome, the term “Chaldean” is utilised to cover the entire group of Oriental tongues which came into print in one form or another from the presses of Venice. The censors who were ignorant of Greek were not likely to have any knowledge of Hebrew, while there was still less chance that they would be able to secure an understanding of the character of the literature presented in other Oriental tongues. The first Hebrew books issued in Venice were editions of the Hebrew Scriptures, of the _Talmud_ and of the _Targum_, which were printed under the directions of the rabbins and at the cost of a publication fund, collected for the purpose from Hebrew congregations throughout South Europe. The doctrines presented in the long series of Talmudic commentaries might very possibly, if they could have been read by the censors in Rome, have been interpreted as antagonistic, at least by implication, to the authority of the Church of Rome. It would have been difficult, however, to point out any measure of doctrinal antagonism in the Arabic books selected for production in Venice. These comprised treatises on mathematics, treatises on medicine, and Arabic versions, with commentaries by Arab philosophers, of certain of the texts of Aristotle. The two or three Persian volumes printed in Venice during the first years of the 16th century included an exposition of the faith of Zoroaster, a memoir of Haroun-al-Raschid, and some specimens of the poets of the 14th century. The actual Chaldean volumes, but one or two in all, were devoted to astrology. It was the repute that came to these volumes that brought about the application of the term Chaldean as a description of any works of divination or magic. Each of the Roman Indexes, from 1559, down, reiterates the prohibition of “Chaldean books of magic.” The date of the publication of the first of the Roman Indexes happened to coincide with the time of the greatest activity of the publishers of Venice. If the censorship policy of Rome could be enforced in Venice, the Venetian printers would be driven out of business. The issue was one that had to be fought out. The victory finally secured by the printers was due, in the main, to the courage and the intellectual force of a priest, Paolo Sarpi.