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{{Short description|Person or object that practices correction}}
{{For|the fictional characters|Correctors}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2010}}
{{Roman government}}
A '''corrector''' (English plural ''correctors'', Latin plural ''correctores'') is a person or object practicing [[wiktionary:correction|correction]], usually by removing or rectifying errors.

The word is originally a Roman title, ''corrector'', derived from the Latin verb ''corrigere'', meaning "to make straight, set right, bring into order."

Apart from the general sense of anyone who corrects mistakes, it has been used as, or part of (some commonly shortened again to Corrector), various specific titles and offices, sometimes quite distant from the original meaning.

== Secular offices ==

=== Roman Antiquity ===
The office of ''corrector'' first appears during the [[Principate]] in the reign of [[Trajan]] (r. 98–117), for extraordinary officials of [[Roman Senate|senatorial]] rank, who were tasked with investigating and reforming the administration in the [[Roman province|provinces]]. To this end, they were entrusted with full ''[[imperium maius]]'', which extended also to territories normally exempt from the authority of the Emperor's provincial governors: the [[Free city (antiquity)|free cities]] of the [[Greek East]], the [[senatorial province]]s, as well as [[Roman Italy|Italy]] herself.<ref name="PW">{{cite encyclopedia | last = v. Premerstein | first = A. |title = Corrector | encyclopedia = [[Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft]] | volume = Band IV, Halbband 8, Corniscae-Demodoros | year = 1901 | at=col. 1645–1655}}</ref> The full title of these officials, from their institution to the end of the 3rd century, was in [[Latin]] ''[[legatus Augusti pro praetore]] [missus] ad corrigendum [ordinandum] statum'', in [[Greek language|Greek]] rendered as πρεσβευτὴς καἰ ἀντιστράτηγος Σεβαστοῦ διορθωτὴς [or ἐπανορθωτὴς] (''presbeutes kai [[antistrategos]] [[sebastos|Sebastou]] diorthotes/epanorthotes''). From the late 3rd century on, the title was increasingly, and afterwards exclusively, simplified as ''corrector'' in Latin and διορθωτὴς (or ἐπανορθωτὴς) in Greek.<ref name="PW"/>

The sending of ''correctores'' to the Greek free cities, as well as to Italy, which as a metropolitan territory formally enjoyed a status different from the provinces, began a process of slow degradation of their distinct legal status and their gradual assimilation to the "ordinary" provinces, a process completed with the reforms of [[Diocletian]] (r. 284–305).<ref name="PW"/> Thus, at the start of the 4th century, all Italian districts (and [[Sicily]]) had a ''corrector'' as governor, although by the middle of the century most were replaced by governors with the rank of ''[[consularis]]''.<ref name="PW"/> In the administrative division as preserved in the ''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'', the ''correctores'' held the senatorial rank of ''[[vir clarissimus]]''. Those of the [[West Roman Empire]] ranked between the ''consulares'' and the ordinary ''[[praeses|praesides]]'', while in the [[East Roman Empire]], they ranked below the ''praesides''.<ref name="PW"/>

According to the ''Notitia Dignitatum'', ca. 400 the following provinces were under ''correctores'':
*[[Province of Apulia and Calabria|Apulia et Calabria]], in southern Italy<ref name="OccidensI">''Notitia Dignitatum'', [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0212/_P1.HTM ''in partibus Occidentis'', I]</ref> 
*[[Lucania et Bruttium]], in southern Italy<ref name="OccidensI"/>
*[[Pannonia Savia|Savia]], in [[Pannonia]] (Balkans)<ref name="OccidensI"/>
*[[Augustamnica]], in Egypt<ref name="OriensI">''Notitia Dignitatum'', [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0212/_P17.HTM ''in partibus Orientis'', I]</ref>
*[[Paphlagonia]], in Asia Minor (Anatolia)<ref name="OriensI"/>

The ''corrector''{{'}}s staff (''[[officium (Ancient Rome)|officium]]'') is also specified: ''princeps officii'', ''[[cornicularius]]'', two ''tabularii'', ''commentariensis'', ''adiutor'', ''ab actis'', ''subadiuva''; finally unspecified ''exceptores'' and 'other' ''cohortalini'', i.e. menial staff.<ref>''Notitia Dignitatum'', [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0212/_P15.HTM ''in partibus Occidentis'', XLIV]</ref>

Two famous but extraordinary ''correctores'' were [[Odaenathus]] and his son [[Vaballathus]], who rose to prominence after Emperor [[Valerian (emperor)|Valerian]] was defeated and captured by the [[Sassanid Persia]]ns in 260.<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Odaenathus |volume=19 |page=995 |first=George Albert |last=Cooke}}</ref> Odaenathus not only defended the frontier in the East, but succeeded in creating an almost independent state (known as the [[Palmyrene Empire]], after its capital [[Palmyra]]), though it nominally remained within the Roman Empire.<ref name=EB1911/> For his efforts, he gained the title of ''corrector totius orientis'', "Corrector of the Whole East". When he died, his son requested and obtained, after some years, the same title, but later styled himself ''[[Augustus (title)|Augustus]]''; Emperor [[Aurelian]] marched East to quash this open rebellion, defeating and capturing Vaballathus as well as his mother (and [[Éminence grise|''de facto'' ruler]]) Queen [[Zenobia]].

In various ''[[municipia]]'', ''corrector'' became the title of a permanent single [[chief magistrate]] (traditionally there had been collegial systems, e.g. two ''[[Roman consul|consul]]es'' or ''[[duumvir]]i''), as a Byzantine 7th-century source attests for thirteen cities in the Egyptian province [[Augustamnica Prima]].

=== Feudal times ===
* ''Corrector of the Press''

== Ecclesiastic (Catholic) titles==<!-- This section is linked from [[Correctores Romani]]. See [[WP:MOS#Section management]] -->
{{Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar|Consecrated and professed titles}}
* In the [[Roman Curia]] (papal ecclesiastical administration), there is an office of corrector and reviser of the books of the [[Vatican Library]]; of the former Tribunal of Correctors, abolished by [[Pius VII]], only a substitute-corrector among the [[Abbreviatores]] was maintained
* In the regular order of the [[Minim (religious order)|Minims]] it was the style of [[General superior|Superiors]] at the convent level, and the higher level, all elected; at the central level, the title is ''Corrector General'', and at the level of the province, ''Corrector Provincial''.
* '''Correctores Romani''' was the name of a pontifical [[canon law]] commission, installed by [[Gregory XIII]], later increased to thirty-five members by Pius V in 1566, which revised the text of the [[Corpus Iuris Canonici]].

Furthermore, the word Corrector was used as the title of several publications, some of which are quite famous, such as the 19th book, also known as ''Medicus'', of the Ancient [[canon law|canons]].

The derived term ''correctorium'' has been used for revisions of the text of the [[Vulgate]] Bible, begun in 1236 by the Dominicans under the French Cardinal [[Hugh of St. Cher]].

== Publishing ==
In the [[publishing]] of literature or other information, [[Editing|editor]]s assume the correctional roles of [[proofreading|proofreader]]s and [[Copy editing|copy edit]]ors in the editing cycle.

== Objects ==
The term is used for various devices used to correct another, as with a ship's compass or artillery.

== See also ==
* [[Censor (ancient Rome)|Censor]]
* [[Correctory]], text-form of the Latin [[Vulgate]] resulting from the critical emendation in the 13th century
* [[Critic]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources and external links ==
* [[Catholic Encyclopaedia]] ([http://www.newadvent.org/utility/search.htm?safe=active&cx=000299817191393086628%3Aifmbhlr-8x0&q=Corrector&sa=Search&cof=FORID%3A9 various entries]; more still to be checked, use its search)

[[Category:Ancient Roman titles]]
[[Category:Ecclesiastical titles]]
[[Category:Gubernatorial titles]]
[[Category:Government of the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Byzantine administrative offices]]