Titivillus Patron Demon of Scribes
While reading the excellent book "Medieval Calligraphy; its History and Technique" by Marc Drogin. I came across a few fascinating pages about the history of the patron demon of scribes, Titivillus. From the book I learned that the life of a medieval scribe was far from a walk in the park. While there was a high demand for copies of books, especially religious texts, the need for precision made it an incredibly tiresome task. Imagine meticulously writing and copying for hours, only to discover misspellings, omissions, or illegible text – for a religious monk, it was nothing short of sin. By the 13th Century, medieval monks had playfully invented a demon named Titivillus to remind themselves against such inattentiveness. This mischievous demon would collect all of one’s writing errors in a sack and deliver them straight to the Devil for documentation. Yes, you read that right – every careless mistake recorded in detail so it could be recited aloud on Judgment Day. Just imagine...