Piazza delle Erbe was once called Piazza del Vin (Wine Piazza) because it was the scene for the wholesale market of wine arriving from the countryside. The area was well-populated with taverns, inns and 'caneve' - these latter could simply sell the wine, but also serve food and drink. Commerce in wine was entrusted to the 'hosts', who had to be registered in the guild. The only exception was for land-owners, who could sell the grapes and wine they produced without membership in the guild. Documentation beginning from the 1200s indicates that the professions of canevari and tabernari were initially unregulated, but that controls were gradually imposed. By the 1300s the guild checked the operations of inn-keepers to guarantee the quality of service and to ensure that the shops did not become centre of ill-doing. The Carraresi obligated the inn-keepers to report anyone bearing arms and forbade them from sheltering of thieves and prostitutes. The hosts' guild met in the Church of St. Job, formerly situated near the north-east corner of modern-day Caffe Pedrocchi. Later the guild moved to the St. Sebastian's Oratory, near the Duomo. There were frequent administrative disputes with the wine-vendors over duties and the regulation of the market. However there were also a number of under-handed understandings for the avoidance of duties, by falsifying in the measure or in the refill of the tankards, to the point that the Venetian government began to officially mark these, in 1554. The wine-vendors were responsible for carrying the rations during war. They were also responsible for carrying water to fire, and for this reason the Commune provided them with rooms called the chasa de la nostra fraia (house of our guild).
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