- Titivillus
Titivillus, sometimes spelled Tutivillus, is a
demon , said to work on behalf ofBelphegor ,Lucifer orSatan in the Middle Ages, to introduce errors into the work of ascribe . He has also been described as collecting idle chat that occurs duringchurch service , and mispronounced, mumbled or skipped words of the service itself, to take to Hell to be counted against the offender.He has been called the "patron demon of scribes," as Titivillus provides an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep into
manuscript s.The first reference to Titivillus by name occurred in "Tractatus de Penitentia", c. 1285 by John of Wales.
According to "Medieval Calligraphy: Its history and technique" by Marc Drogin, "for the past half-century every edition of
The Oxford English Dictionary has listed an incorrect page reference for, of all things, a footnote on the earliest mention of Titivillus."Titivillus plays an antagonistic role in the Medieval English play Mankind.
In an anonymous fifteenth-century devotional treatise, Myroure of Oure Ladye, Titivillus introduced himself thus (I.xx.54):"I am a poure dyuel, and my name ys Tytyvyllus ... I muste eche day ... brynge my master a thousande pokes full of faylynges, and of neglygences in syllables and wordes."
Further reading
*"Medieval Calligraphy: Its history and technique" by Marc Drogin
* [http://www.titivillus-editorial.com/tes-whois.htm Who is Titivillus?]See also
*
Printer's devil
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