Got typos? Blame Titivillus, the "medieval demon of typos"

The next time you make a mistake in your writing, or pick up something you've published and instantly spot a typo (argh!), don't fret, it wasn't your fault! Instead of taking on the shame of not proof-reading your work thoroughly enough, you can just point to Titivillus instead!

Who is Titivillus, you might ask? Well, he's a demon who has long been blamed for, according to Princeton University's Medieval Studies department, "slips and sins in song, speech, and writing." In fact, Medieval Studies scholar Jan Ziolkowski, from Harvard University, traces his origins back to at least 1200, when he began showing up in paintings and sermons in medieval Europe and beyond. And he's definitely got staying power, as he's still beloved today in some circles. Princeton University provides this helpful overview of his origins and reach:

Thanks to today's dominance of English, Titivillus is regarded as especially particular to medieval England, but he became commonplace far beyond the Continent and survived past the Middle Ages to appear in Rabelais, the earliest Slovak literature, Anatole France, Herman Melville, and W. H. Auden, before finally having a novel devoted to him in 1953. He remains unforgotten, a curio beloved among calligraphers and role-play gamers.

Historian Amanda Foreman, writing in The Wall Street Journal, further explains that Titivillus, the "medieval demon of typos" who likely inspired the phrase "the devil is in the details," took typos very seriously. She recounts that medieval scribes were "warned that Titivillus ensured that every scribal mistake was collected and logged, so that it could be held against the offender at Judgment Day." Yikes!

I'm so glad that the wages for the sin of typos are much less serious nowadays. And I'm thrilled that I now have someone else to blame when I fail to catch my own typos and mistakes! So, when you read my next post and find a typo, don't blame me, blame Titivillus!