Titivillus
Titivillusis ademonsaid to introduce errors into the work ofscribes.The first reference to Titivillus by name occurred inTractatus de Penitentia,c. 1285,by Johannes Galensis (John of Wales).[a]Attribution has also been given toCaesarius of Heisterbach.Titivillus has also been described as collecting idle chat that occurs duringchurch service,and mispronounced, mumbled or skipped words of the service, to take toHellto be counted against the offenders.[citation needed]
He has been called the "patron demon of scribes", as Titivillus provides an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep intomanuscriptsas they are copied.[b]
Marc Droginnoted in his instructional manual,Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique(1980), that "for the past half-century every edition ofThe Oxford English Dictionaryhas listed an incorrect page reference for, of all things, a footnote on the earliest mention of Titivillus. "
Titivillus gained a broader role as a subversive figure of physical comedy, with satirical commentary on human vanities, in late medieval Englishpageants,such as theIudiciumthat finishes theTowneley Cycle.[4]He plays an antagonistic role in the Medieval English playMankind.
In an anonymous fifteenth-century English 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 thousandepokesfull of faylynges, and of neglygences in syllables and wordes."
Origin of the name
[edit]The function of collecting liturgical errors in a sack was first mentioned in byJacques de Vitry(died 1240) inSermones vulgares(tenth sermon, onNumbers18:5), which speaks of a demon that listens to the choir singing psalms and collects syncopated or omitted syllables in a sack.
I have heard that a certain holy man, while in the choir, saw a devil truly weighed down with a full sack. When, however, he commanded the demon to tell what he carried, the evil one said: "These are the syllables and syncopated words and verses of the psalms which these very clerics in their morning prayers stole from God; you can be sure I am keeping these diligently for their accusation."[5][6]
This demon was later given the name "Titivillus" by Johannes Galensisc. 1285.[7]"Titivillus collects fragments of words and puts them in his bag thousand times every day." (Fragmina verborum Titivillus colligit horum quibus die mille vicibus se sarcinat ille).[8]
Regarding the demon's function,André Vernetpoints out that the Latin terms, particularly "collect" (colligere) and "fragments" (fragmenta) for the clery's omissions, derive fromJohn 6:12,theFeeding the multitudenarrative, in which the disciples are told to "Gather up the broken pieces (Colligite fragmenta). "As to the demon's name,Titivillus,Vernet points toThe City of God(Book IV, Chapter 8), in a passage in whichAugustine,while giving examples of the numerous Roman deities assigned to each step of the agricultural process, mentions a goddessTutilinawhose job is to watch over grain after it was collected and stored. However, we must imagine a series of copyists' errors (perhaps in the copy ofCity of Godavailable to Johannes Galensis) to arrive at "Titivillus" and its many variants: Tutivillus, Tytivillum, Tintillus, Tantillus, Tintinillus, Titivitilarius, Titivilitarius.[9]
In popular culture
[edit]Since 1977, one of themany devilspopulating the role-playing gameDungeons & Dragonsis named "Titivilus."
He was the subject of the bookTittivulus or The Verbiage CollectorbyMichael Ayrton(Max Reinhardt:London, 1953).[citation needed]
See also
[edit]- Printer's devil
- Wicked Bible
- Uli der Fehlerteufel
- Daemones Ceramici– Greek mythological spirits
Notes
[edit]- ^Little is known of Johannes Galensis aside from this text and a set ofDecretales intermediæ.
- ^For a twentieth-century subversive demon of mechanical failures, comparegremlin.
References
[edit]- ^Aragonés Estella, Esperanza (2006). "Visiones de tres diablos medievales".De Arte(5): 15.doi:10.18002/da.v0i5.1543.hdl:10612/1190.
- ^Esquivias, Óscar:"Diabluras",Diario de Burgos,15 de diciembre de 2014, p. 5.
- ^Tolnay, Charles de.Hieronymus Bosch.Het volledige werk, 1984, pp. 35–36.
- ^The numerous appearances of Titivillus in the TowneleyIudiciumare noted inHicks, James E. (1990). "Majesty and Comedy in the Towneley" Iudicium ": The Contribution of Property to Spectacle".Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.44(4): 211–228.doi:10.2307/1346789.JSTOR1346789.
- ^Jennings, Margaret (November 1977)."Tutivillus: The literary career of the recording demon".Studies in Philology.74(5): 11.JSTOR4173953.RetrievedJuly 31,2021.
- ^A slightly different translation is given inThe Exempla of Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry,ed. and trans. by T. S. Crane (New York: B. Franklin, 1971), p. 141.
- ^Johannes Galensis,Tractatus de penitentia,c. 1285 in London, British Library MS Royal 10 A. ix, fol. 40v
- ^Item 9908 inWalther, H. (1964).Proverbia sententiaeque Latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in Alpha betischer Anordnung (Teil 2).Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- ^Vernet, André (1958–1959)."Titivillus," démon des copistes "".Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France.1958:155–157.doi:10.3406/bsnaf.1959.5965.RetrievedJuly 31,2021.
Further reading
[edit]
- Drogin, Marc,Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique,Dover Publications, 1980.ISBN0-486-26142-5
- Who is Titivillus?
- Montañés, J. G,Tutivillus. El demonio de las erratas,Madrid, Turpin, 2015.
- Montañés, J. G,Titivillus. Il demone dei refusi,Perugia, Graphe.it, 2018