The Patron Demon Of Typography
(Ricardo Méndez Barozzi)
Other trades have their teachers, other arts have their holy patrons, but only the typographies can assert to have a patron demon. The following narration of Titivillus, this medieval singular demon is based on exiguous written registers, interlaced with a quantity of free presumptions. Titivillus was created in jest by medieval monks to achieve a serious purpose. The repetitive nature of monastic life was wear out. The monks got used to stop to pay due attention to their work and then they were maiming words or words were escaping from them, committing orthographic errors. It was necessary remembered to them that the lack of attention was a sin. The first written mention about Titivillus by his name appeared about 1285 at the Tractatus de Penitentia, by John of Wales. And this commentary was repeated at the beginning of the following century by Petrus de Palude, the patriarch of Jerusalem, during a sermon: ?Fragmina psalmorum/Titivillus colligit horum?, who translated freely says that Titivillus collected chunks of the psalms. Slipping silently without being seen, he was inspecting one by one all the verbal barbarities which were mentioned during the religious services. But the monks deplored mistakes in the copy and in the writing so much as those who were produced in reading and in liturgical chants, although there isn?t any protocol of his interest in errors of the scribes before the 15th.Century. Also it presumes that maybe can to have followed to the monks after the celebration of the mass, to be internalized of what was out of rule at the penmen apartment. His demoniacal condition took origin from the things that Titivillus did when he listened or saw an error. The early description from John of Wales contributed with another datum: ?Quacque die mille/fvicibus sarcinat ille?, corroborated in many manuscripts (one of them called Arundel 506, folio 46, which is in London British Museum). This explains that Titivillus was forced to find out everyday enough errors to fill 1000 times his purse, then the Devil was going down with them to hell, where every sin was duly registered on a book with the name of the guilty monk, to be read on Judgment Day. We could think that the search of errors by Titivillus was an easy task. At The Cloister Manuscript (?El manuscrito de los claustros?), like we know right now, produced between 1325 and 1328, fifteen saints were accidentally omitted in the calendar, and the names of more than thirty of them had orthography errors. Already surely there was a full purse. However, the presence of Titivillus had his effect. The monks quickly began to be more careful, and about 1460 was necessary to maraud sneaking with the purse almost empty, rounding the site of honor of chorus, looking for some ?janglers, cum jappers, nappers, galpers, quoque drawers, momlers, forskippers, overenners, sic overhippers?? (the janglers and the jappers speak quickly or kidding, the nappers remain slept, the galpers yawn, the drawers don?t stop speaking and the momlers mumble, the forskippers look at the things above, the overenners are like the forskippers but faster, and the overhippers simply do all with more vigor. Titivillus had remained short of sins and for 1475 he had had to stoop to incur in the more ungraceful deviltries. In other words, hidden himself furtively in the churches where he was taking note about the names of women who were gossiping during the mass. But the devil must have his condign punishment. In some moment during the 15Th. Century he realized that a clever devil had to can woo to the scribes in order that they duplicate, triplicate and even quadruplicate their errors.
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