January 31, 2022 3:36 pm
Dear bibliopathologist,
I am an avid reader and lately I often come across friends who hate to death typos in books, both cheap and luxury editions. In my experience, books without errors do not exist: even where I have not noticed them, I am sure they have escaped me. However, I can understand the mood of my friends who are annoyed to find here and there typos that spoil the reading. Are there any books without errors?
–Marco
Dear Marco,
to hell with typos. In 1561 the Latin translation of a ‘Anatomy of the Mass which originally appeared in Italian and then in French. A book of just 172 eighth pages, to which the publisher had to add fifteen pages of corrections. The extender of these interminable errata twice cursed Satan, who had tried to disfigure such a devoted work both before and after printing. The devil had in fact reduced the original manuscript to a deplorable state, so as to make it difficult to decipher, and then had confused the printers, causing them to disseminate the printed edition of typos – “I believe that in no other book have so many errors been made, a hundred if not even more “. Apparently, the devil rages against the books he fears most, in the same way that he torments saints and ascetics and barely casts a distracted eye on the vicious.
Other times the prince of darkness is not called into question but a secondary member of his court, a little devil with the funny name of Titivillus.
The Virgin of Mercy, a work of around 1485 attributed to Diego de la Cruz. On the top right, the devil Titivillus.
(Wikipedia)
The Spaniard Julio Ignacio González Montañés has reconstructed its history in a small volume, Titivillus. The typo demon (Graphe editions). We already know of it in the Middle Ages, but its evil role as a spreading of transcription or printing errors was consecrated only in France at the end of the nineteenth century. Before that, he compiled the list of sins of every human being.
Between the two activities, as you can guess, there is a very close link. Anatole France, in 1908, recognized a providential function in Titivillus: “I believe that this quirky devil, if he survived the invention of printing, is now carrying out the thankless task of revealing the typos scattered in books that claim to be accurate.” The more a book believes itself to be flawless, the more Titivillus reveals its sins to the world.
It is a bibliographic variant of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The book-Pharisee, all bold in the temple of the library, exhibits the shiny back saying: “Oh God, I thank you that they are not like the other books, full of typos, oversights and messes”. The book-publican does not even dare to raise the title page to the sky, he beats the cover and pleads for mercy for his typos, even for the hidden ones (cleanse me from my secrets, says the Psalmist). In the parable, the tax collector’s prayer is more pleasing to heaven, because whoever exalts himself will be humbled. But with books it is different: the reader is an inflexible and vindictive god, and he does not tolerate on the page the thousand distortions with which he is forced to live together in life.
The bibliopathologist responds is a post column on cultural perversions. If you want to submit your cases, write to [email protected].