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Titivillus
Contents Introductio
The Devil Made me do it!

Titivillus
"The Patron Demon of Scribes"

Titivillus is often referred to with the somewhat fanciful title of "The Patron
Demon of Scribes". For much of human history the mechanical printing press
did not exist, so any copies of a book or document had to be made by hand.
Such copying was always done by professional scribes who were oftentimes
monks in the Scriptorium of their monasteries (a tradition we can thank
Cassiodorus for, not to mention for the preservation of texts and learning
during the "Dark Ages"). Except for the shortest of documents, the work was
generally laborious. The text had to be carefully drawn and faithful to the
original document. Consider the labor required to copy an entire Bible or
Missal, for example! I, for one, would not want to copy all of my Latin
prayers by hand, much less an entire Bible.

As with even the best of us, minds can wander from time to time and the
monks were no exception. When this happened, errors would be introduced
into the text. No one likes to take credit for his own mistakes, and true to
human nature the monks invented Titivillus. He was invented somewhat in jest
by them, both to take the blame for their mistakes and as a warning to the
hapless monk whose mind strayed from the task. Titivillus is first mentioned
by name in the Tractatus de Penitentia, written around 1285 by John of Wales,
and then again in the 14th century by Petrus de Palude, the Patriarch of
Jerusalem.

Titivillus, so the story goes, would wander the earth every day collecting
scribal errors until he had collected enough to fill his sack a thousand times.
As he completed his collections for the day, the sack would be taken to the
devil and each mistake was duly entered in a book against the name of the
monk who had made the error. Upon Judgement Day, each of the errors would
be read out loud and would be held against the monk who had made it.

Keeping in mind what awaited for the careless scribe come Judgement Day,
Titivillus helped the monastic community keep its standards up and its errors
down. By 1460, the monks were doing such a good job that poor Titivillus was
said to be reduced to slinking about churches and recording the names of
women who gossiped during Mass. Hardly the sort of thing a once proud
demon would want to stoop to, but times were tough.

However, that situation did not last. With the advent of the Renaissance, the
rise of Universities and the merchant class, there was a sudden demand for
manuscripts. The scribes were soon at their limits and could not keep up with
the demand. Instead of their usual slow and careful process of copying, they
had to rush to produce the copies and the error count began to rise rapidly. The

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monks disclaimed any responsibility for the errors and blamed them on
Titivillus. Titivillus was having a field day sacking up errors left and right.

Eventually the printing press was invented and soon traditional scribes were
few. Titivillus was again out of a job and soon back to scouring the churches
for gossiping ladies. Given the quality of the texts from the 19th century, poor
Titivillus never did get to fill his sack very often, at least with scribal or
printing errors. He truly was in a wretched state of affairs.

Titivillus was in such a sad state that I suspect he tried to branch out into other
areas. Titivillus' hand can be seen in 20th century with the likes of Murphy's
Laws and the Gremlins of World War II aircraft. Admittedly he did make
some progress in those areas, but it was rather limited. Nothing like those
heady days of the 16th century, so I believe he has moved on to other pursuits.

I believe that Titivillus has found his true calling in this modern age with
computers, especially in desktop publishing and the Internet. Given the huge
increase in misinformation and printing errors, it is clear that Titivillus has
been given a new lease on life. He is back stuffing his bag and making up for
lost centuries from the looks of it.

As but one example, in the religion section of a major newspaper, a reporter

discussed in some detail the various styles of altars used in churches today.
Aside from the reporter's questionable expertise on the subject, it was clear
that Titivillus had gotten to him. Instead of "altar", the hapless reporter
spelled the word as "alter", which was no doubt politely suggested by his spell
checker*. He did this not once, but each and every time the word appeared. It
is clear to me from many such examples as this that Titivillus has found his
calling in the age of modern communication.

For my part, I have tried to exorcise this pesky demon from my web pages.
But alas, I know that I have fallen prey to his distractions from time to time. It
can only be under the influence of the master Titivillus himself that I left out
the "confugimus" in the "Sub tuum praesidium" from my web page. (A kind
note from someone pointed this out to me and I quickly fixed it.) Also,
somehow the "Angel of God" turned into the "Angle of God." This particular
gaffe went unnoticed for a long time. Fortunately for my ego, I caught that one
before someone else did. But again, such a mistake can only be due to the
diabolic influence of Titivillus.

So be advised, Titivillus is out there in the press and the internet, stuffing his
bag easily a thousand times over. Given the various errors I have seen on the
net and in the press, the prudent person should always double check
information with other sources. (You wouldn't want Titivillus to add your
name to the list now would you?) For my part, I will continue to do battle
against him on my web pages. I ask that should you find a case where I have
succumbed to his devices, to please let me know so I can fix it.

* Given the perversity of certain Microsoft products, it has been suggested by

more than one observer that Titivillus is in league with Bill Gates. I have no
hard evidence one way or the other. However, I do know that if you run the
later versions of Netscape and type in the words "evil corporation" into the
URL address box and then hit enter, you will find that Microsoft comes up at
the top of the search list. Hmmmmm....... :-)

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