Page 13 - eMuse Vol.9 No.09

Did You Know? Grandma’s

Mt Beerwah’s Devil Devil

In 1837 Andrew Petrie, was appointed Sayings
Superintendent of Works of convict set-
tlement of Moreton Bay. He moved there
with his family to supervise the repair of
badly built buildings and the construction
of new buildings. And so his family became
the first free settlers of what was to be- You don’t
come Queensland .
When the convict settlement closed, learn much
the Petries stayed on. In addition to the
many contributions in building the new Andrew Petrie if your lips
colony, the Petries were enthusiastic ex- blood, and Fust was imprisoned. Though are moving
plorers . Fust was later freed after the bibles’ origins
On one of his trips, Andrew decided to were revealed, many still believed he was
climb Mt Beerwah, the tallest of the Glass- in league with Satan, thus the phrase.
house mountains. His indigenous guides Another possible origin is ascribed to
pleaded with him not to do so as a devil Aldus Manutius, a well-known Venetian
devil called Brocalpin lived there . printer of the Renaissance and founder
They warned him Brocalpin would of the Aldine Press, who was denounced
strike him down. Petrie dismissed this as by detractors for practicing the black arts
superstition and so became the first Euro- (early printing was long associated with
pean to climb Mt Beerwah. devilry). The assistant to Manutius was a
The view, as many climbers since have
said, was magnificent. On his descent he young boy of African descent who was ac-
cused of being the embodiment of Satan
told his indigenous friends how nothing and dubbed the printer’s devil .
bad had happened . “It’s probably because
you’re white Brocalpin’s curse does not ap-
ply to you.” They were still uneasy and
sceptical.
Not long after, Andrew went to a doctor
for treatment of sandy blight. Medical in-
competane left him blind. Indigenous folk
knew Brocalpin had his revenge.
Printer’s Devil

A printer’s devil is an apprentice printer.
The origin of the term is uncertain with sev-
eral theories put forward.
Parts of printer’s apprentices’ skin were
inevitably stained black by the ink used in
printing. As black was associated with the
“black arts”, the apprentice came to be
called a devil .
Then there is the fanciful belief among German printers 1568
early printers that a special devil haunted If you haven’t chosen a favourite theory
every print shop, performing mischief such yet here’s another .
as inverting type, misspelling words and This likely source stems from the fact
removing entire lines of completed type. that worn and broken lead type is thrown
The apprentice became a substitute source into a “hellbox”, which the printer’s devil
of blame and came to be called a printer’s must take to the furnace for melting and
devil by association. recasting.
A third theory tells of the business part- But wait there’s more . . .
ner of Johann Gutenberg, Johann Fust, who English tradition links the origin of print-
sold several of Gutenberg’s bibles to King er’s devil to the assistant of the first English
Louis XI of France and his court officials, printer and book publisher, William Caxton .
representing the bibles as hand-copied His assistant was named “Deville”,
manuscripts. When it was discovered which evolved to “devil” over time,
that individual letters were identical in as that name was used to describe
appearance, Fust was accused of other printers’ apprentices.
witchcraft – the red ink text was
said to have been written in Wally
September 2020 eMuse 13