The Codex Gigas is an 800 year old illuminated manuscript that's noteworthy for a few reasons.
First of all, it is the largest surviving medieval manuscript
in the world - this thing is huge, monumentally large. But the book is also known as The Devil's
Bible. This is due to both the content of the book and the stories that surround it.
So what makes this book so evil? Who created this thing, and why?
The Codex Gigas was created in the early 13th century in a Benedictine monastery in Bohemia,
which is now a region in modern-day Czech Republic. It's 36 inches long,
20 inches wide and a little less than 9 inches thick. It weighs 165 pounds,
or 75 kilograms - this means that this book was heavier than I was in my early adulthood,
although sadly this is no longer the case. The manuscript contains over 300 sheets of vellum,
made from 160 sorry donkeys. That means the pages cover a total area of roughly
1,500 square feet or 140 square meters. So this thing is pretty big but what's in it?
The Codex Gigas comprises a few different texts, actually. The entire Christian Bible,
two works from Josephus, an encyclopedia by St. Isidor of Seville, and The Chronicle of Bohemia by
Bohemian monk Cosmas. There are a lot of smaller texts in there too, alphabets from different
languages, a calender, magic forumlae, medical practices - it seems the Codex Gigas was created
as a sort of collection of human knowledge. So why then, is it commonly called the Devil's
Bible? Well, there's a full page dedicated to this big drawing of the divil himself,
be jaysus look at him. It seems this large illustration of the devil has always been
what the book was best known for, as the pages around where it appears in the manuscript are
more worn and tanned than the rest of the codex. But having a big page full o' devil isn't the
only thing that gives this book a dark and creepy nature. A legend surrounding the book's creation,
and how the devil came to appear so prominantly is also pretty spooky.
Now this legend was already recorded in the Middle Ages, so it goes back a long time.
According to the legend, there was once a monk in the monastery who had broken his vows,
and was sentenced to be walled up alive. The monk pleaded for his life, and promised the other monks
that if they gave him just one more night to live, he would create a glorious manuscript of
all human knowledge, in exchange for his freedom. The other monks agreed, and allowed him the night
to complete this task, expecting to wall him up the next day when he inevitably failed. The scribe
got to work, adding pages to the manuscript as fast as he could. But it was no use, no matter
how fast he worked, his task was impossible. By midnight, he realised his efforts were futile.
He made a prayer for help with the manuscript. But it wasn't to God he prayed, it was to the
Devil. In exchange for his soul, the scribe wanted the Devil to help him finish the manuscript before
the morning. The devil accepted the deal, finishing the massive manuscript overnight,
and leaving a mark of his handiwork. The result was the Codex Gigas, the Devil's Bible. The monks
accepted the codex in exchange for the scribe's life. His life was saved, but his soul was lost.
So that tale definitely adds to the evil vibe of this book, but get this - experts have tested
the likelihood of this story and estimated that in order to create this book, a single person
would have to write for over 20-years non-stop. But you want to know what's even more crazy?
Certain evidence indicates the manuscript was the work of a single person. In fact,
handwriting analysis reveals that not only is the text throughout the codex so similar that it
suggests it was done by only one person, but it's so similar it's like this person never changed
through writing it - like they never aged or fell ill or even just had a change of mood or
temperment. It's almost as if they wrote the whole thing in a very short space of time.
The codex makes reference to a monk named Herman, who many believe could have actually
been the scribe who wrote it. His name appears with the designation "inclusus", which means
"shut in" or "recluse". This term denotes someone who lives in isolation in a cell for religious
reasons. Sometimes these people would be walled away and even given a mass resembling a funeral.
Was Herman a monk who locked himself away to dedicate his life to creating the Codex Gigas?
Is this where the legend originates from? Unfortunately,
we just don't know for sure who created the codex or how.
The monastery where the manuscript was created was destroyed in the 15th century during the Hussite
Revolution. Thankfully the manuscript survived this, as it seems it wasn't in the monastery at
the time, instead being on loan. The manuscript moved around to a few different monasteries
until in 1594 when Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor moved it to his personal collection in Prague.
This was a shame as this collection was taken as war spoils by the Swedish army at the end of the
Thirty Years' War in 1648. It remained in the Swedish Royal Library from 1649 to 2007, when
it returned to Prague after 359 years, on loan. In the year 1697 a fire broke out that sadly
destroyed much of the Swedish Royal Library. To save the precious Codex Gigas, someone chucked it
out the window. Apparently it landed on someone below and injured them. Sounds like they were
lucky to be alive, look at this fucking thing. I'm sorry, maybe I'm underestimating the standard of
medical practice in 1697 but I feel like if this thing landed on you, you'd be fucked up for life.
"doctor, there's someone here to see you with a swollen index finger"
"ah yes, bigfingyitis, I've studied extensively on the subject. I suspect a ghost may have
found it's way under the nail and into the finger. Cut the nail and burn the clippings,
from the same fire, heat a pint of the patient's blood and mix it with a healthy quanitity
of opium. While the patient ingests this, bash him about the head with a sackful of doorknobs.
If he survives the night, he will be cured." "ok, alright, well there's another fella
here who's been squished by a large book" "hmmm, I'm afraid this particular affliction
is unfamiliar to me. I'm quite unsure what to do in this case. In an abundance of caution, prepare
the skull remover, the bone twister and the grabby thing. I must consult the medical texts"
"E-gads! The malady is spreading!"
So the Codex Gigas has had an interesting 800-year history. It should also be noted that there were
originally more pages, but about a dozen were removed, and it's unknown who did this or why
or what the pages contained. Which just adds a little more spooky to the thing in my view.
But wait right there, because I believe I have recovered some of these pages, and am the first
person to look upon them in 800 years. I am ready to share my discovery with the world.
Behold. The words of old revealed. Unlike the rest of the codex, these pages are not
written in Latin, although the reason is unclear to me. Truly an astonishing
find. I hope you appreciate it like I do. Thanks for watching, I'll see you next week.