Windpunk and devils
Meet Tutivillus
Tutivillus is the small demon that collects 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. In other words, he performs the magical act of transferring spoken word to signs written on paper (1).
He can be found on Church wall painting from the middle ages. Here he is seen lurking next to a churchgoer, writing her words down during the sermon (where she should be silent). In the Middle Ages he was considered a demon associated with writing and literacy. He introduced errors into scribes’ work copying texts and his exploits were described in paintings, sermons, conduct books and poems. Later he haunted printing presses, causing typesetters to make mistakes.
On the first painting, notice the wonderful green gugel the lady is wearing.
It is always nice to have an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep into manuscripts as they are copied!
Stats
(1) A gallimaufry: http://gallimaufry.typepad.com/blog/2011/03/tutivillus.html
Church frescos or church wall paintings (Danish: kalkmalerier) are to be found in some 600 churches across Denmark, no doubt representing the highest concentration of surviving church murals anywhere in the world (Wiki).
Sources
Øret til væggen: Church wall paintings app can be found here: kalkmaleriinfo.natmus.dk
The Myroure of Oure Ladye: containing a devotional treatise on divine service, with a translation of the offices used by the sisters of the Brigittine monastery of Sion, at Isleworth, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It can be found in its entirety here: https://archive.org/stream/themyroureofoure00unkwuoft#page/n127/mode/2up/search/Tytyvyllus
Tutivillus is the small demon that collects 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. In other words, he performs the magical act of transferring spoken word to signs written on paper (1).
He can be found on Church wall painting from the middle ages. Here he is seen lurking next to a churchgoer, writing her words down during the sermon (where she should be silent). In the Middle Ages he was considered a demon associated with writing and literacy. He introduced errors into scribes’ work copying texts and his exploits were described in paintings, sermons, conduct books and poems. Later he haunted printing presses, causing typesetters to make mistakes.
"I am a poure dyuel, and my name ys Tytyvyllus ... I muste eche day ... brynge my master a thousande pokes full of faylynges, & of neglygences in syllables and wordes." (The Myroure of Oure Ladye 1530)
On the first painting, notice the wonderful green gugel the lady is wearing.
It is always nice to have an easy excuse for the errors that are bound to creep into manuscripts as they are copied!
Here it is described in more detail what the little demon Tutivillus is doing. The manuscript is from 1530 and reprinted in 1873. Recently the nice people at archive.org made it available to all of us on the internet.
An excerpt from The Myroure of Oure Ladye (1530)
I think it is safe to assume that this man is drinking with the devil.
Church wall painting from 1425-1450
Church wall painting from 1425-1450
Stats
(1) A gallimaufry: http://gallimaufry.typepad.com/blog/2011/03/tutivillus.html
Church frescos or church wall paintings (Danish: kalkmalerier) are to be found in some 600 churches across Denmark, no doubt representing the highest concentration of surviving church murals anywhere in the world (Wiki).
Sources
Øret til væggen: Church wall paintings app can be found here: kalkmaleriinfo.natmus.dk
The Myroure of Oure Ladye: containing a devotional treatise on divine service, with a translation of the offices used by the sisters of the Brigittine monastery of Sion, at Isleworth, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It can be found in its entirety here: https://archive.org/stream/themyroureofoure00unkwuoft#page/n127/mode/2up/search/Tytyvyllus
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