Codex Gigas - The Devil's Bible

According to the legend, Codex Gigas is the work of a monk who violated his monastic oath, for which he was condemned to lived alive in the walls of the monastery. In order to avoid the punishment, the monk said that he would only create a book for one night that would contain all human knowledge. At midnight the monk realized he would not be able to fulfill his promise, so he sold his soul to the Devil who finished the manuscript for him. As a sign of gratitude, the monk painted the Devil on one of the pages of the code.

If this is a legend, then the drawing is a fact. The half-satin Satan is painted on the 290th page of the notorious Codex. Several of the pages before the painting are scattered, and then charts with the image of Satan are removed from the next eight pages. Who has done this and has so far been a secret to the family of printers. The Devil's Bible, despite the misty legends, has never been forbidden, even a few generations of monks studied the Holy Scriptures.

Despite this legend, Codex Gigas was not destroyed by the Inquisition and was even used by many scholastics.

It is because of this image, not because of its size, that Codex Gigas has been declared as the "eighth miracle" in the Christian world. However, Codex Gigas brought to the monastery in Podlazice not glorify, but destruction - the monastery was destroyed to the ground in the course of the religious wars in the XV century.

Proven facts:

• The Codex Gigas is the largest medieval manuscript ever preserved. 92 cm long, 50 cm wide and 22 cm thick.
• For its work, calf skin of 160 animals was used.
• The weight of the code is nearly 75 kilograms. The manuscript is so large that two people are needed to be lifted.
• The book is written by a single person. Which is hard labor and is very difficult to believe, but thanks to graphological expertise it is already proven.
• Writing probably took him 30 years without interruption.
• It is assumed that the author was a monk, a hermit who did not do anything else, and in this way he was redeeming his sins.
• This is his only work. The handwriting is unique.
• The confusion that it is a satanic bible comes from the great portrait of the devil, but the author most likely liked to compare good and evil because the opposite side of the city was painted.
• The confusion comes from one word "inclusus", which has long been interpreted as a hell of a punishment. But "inclusus" also means a hermit.
• The inks are from broken insects.
• The book contained 320 parchment leaves, 11 of which were cut off, the reason for which probably was the content of the missing pages.
• The code has a wooden cover with a leather liner with metallic ornaments.
• In 2007, when he was exposed for the first and only time, Codax Gigas was not insured in an insurance company but directly with state insurance worth more than 10 million euros.

Code Gigas contains the Latin translation of the Bible (The Vulgate) Hieronymus Blessed with the exception of the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation of John. The code includes the Encyclopedia "Etymology" by Isidor Sevilski, "Jewish Archeology" by Joseph Flavius, "Czech Chronicle" by Kozma Prague, various treatises devoted to history, etymology and physiology, a calendar with a condy of the monastery in Podlažíz magical formulas, exorcist spells, and other local beliefs. The manuscript is written entirely in Latin. The handwriting with which the pages are written is absolutely monotonous throughout the book, which creates the legend that the code is written for a short time.

The pages of the manuscript are decorated with illustrations in red, blue, yellow and green. The 290th page contains a unique 50-cm drawing of the devil. Some of the pages of the manuscript are darker than the others, and their letters are fainter, due to the impact light on the parchment. This shows that over the centuries this pages have been exposed for the longest time on light.

The manuscript returned to Prague, after a 359-year absence. It was transported to the Czech capital under strict security on a military plane and immediately caused a great deal of interest.