A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.
Back to Main Page of the "Printmaking dictionary"
literal error
A literal error, in text printing, is a mistake of a letter which is either exchanged for another, is missing, or is doubled. The first literal error known appears in the Mainz psalter printed by Furst and Schoeffer in 1547. The error made was to write spalmorum instead of psalmorum. In French the term used is coguille (meaning shell). The logic behind this strange term lies in the custom by which religious pilgrims carried with them a "Coquille Saint-Jacques" (scallop shell) to have their faults condoned.
Back to Main Page of the "Printmaking dictionary"