Trivial Tuesday #4

Before I get into this weeks question and last weeks answer I wanted to mention something. Today I’m the feature reader at CBC Book Club, it’s kind of exciting. There are links to my blog as well as two of my favourite blogs. You’ll have to go there to check it out. You’ll see my photo and name on the front page that will link you to the featured reader page.

The answer to last weeks question is St. Francis de Sales. He’s not only the patron saint of writers but the saint for several others. He represents Baker, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Catholic press; Columbus, Ohio; confessors; deaf people; educators; Upington, South Africa; Wilmington, Delaware; writers; journalists.

This weeks question is an easy one and is a two parter.  What is Mark Twain’s real name?  And what was the first book he wrote?

Until next week, enjoy reading.  Also if you have any trivia questions please send an email to thatsthebook@gmail.com and I’ll include them in Trivial Tuesday.

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Trivial Tuesday #3

The answer to last weeks trivia question is Titivillus. I came across the name in my reading of The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and it seemed an interesting bit of trivia. Wikipedia has short entry about the “patron demon of scribes” which says:

Titivillus was a demon said to work on behalf of Belphegor, Lucifer or Satan to introduce errors into the work of a scribe. The first reference to Titivillus by name occurred in Tractatus de Penitentia, c. 1285, by John of Wales. Titivillus has also been described as collecting idle chat that occurs during church service, and mispronounced, mumbled or skipped words of the service itself, to take to Hell to be counted against the offender.

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.[1]

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.[2] 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.”

So this weeks question is related to the last. Who is the patron saint of writers? Be sure to look for the answer next week.

Trivial Tuesday #2

I know someone of you have been thinking about this past weeks question and the answer of course is George/Georgie, Pete and Dim (these are the friends of Alex the lead character in A Clockwork Orange).

This weeks question arisses from my reading this week.  And because of that it may be a little trickier than last weeks.  The question I have this week is:

What is the name of the mischievous demon that created havoc for scribes?  He was blamed for creating mistakes while transcribing which he would then bring in his bag to deliver to Satan.