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Titivillus was a demon said to work on behalf of Belphegor, Lucifer or Satan to introduce errors into the work of scribes. The first reference to Titivillus by name occurred in ''Tractatus de Penitentia'', c. 1285, by Johannes Galensis (John of Wales).〔Little is known of Johannes Galensis aside from this text and a set of ''Decretales intermediæ''.〕 Titivillus has also been described as collecting idle chat that occurs during church service, and mispronounced, mumbled or skipped words of the service, to take to Hell to be counted against the offenders. He has been called the "patron demon of scribes," as Titivillus provides an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep into manuscripts as they are copied.〔For a twentieth-century subversive demon of mechanical failures, compare gremlin.〕 Marc Drogin noted in his instructional manual ''Medieval Calligraphy: Its history and technique'' (1980) "for the past half-century every edition of ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' has 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 English pageants, such as the ''Iudicium'' that finishes the Towneley Cycle.〔The numerous appearances of Titivillus in the Towneley ''Iudicium'' are noted in James E. Hicks, "Majesty and Comedy in the Towneley "Iudicium": The Contribution of Property to Spectacle" ''Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature'' 44.4 (1990), pp. 211-228, ''passim''.〕 He plays an antagonistic role in the Medieval English play ''Mankind''. 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 thousande pokes full of faylynges, and of neglygences in syllables and wordes." == Notes == 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Titivillus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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