What is the Codex Gigas or the Devil’s Bible? How was this massive manuscript written in a single night? This ancient text with a portrait of the Devil is what many believe could only have been made with the help of Lucifer himself.
The legend has it that a Monk on his deathbed made a deal with the Devil to finish the bible in time to save his life, and although he may have finished it, his life was not spared.
The Legend
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It’s the Middle Ages and a man is sitting in a cell awaiting one of the worst punishments the world has to offer – even for those brutal times.
He has been sentenced to be “walled-up” alive for the crime of breaking his monastic vows. He brokers a deal with those who want him dead.
“If I can write a book in just one night that contains all human knowledge and outlines the majesty of our great God and our great monastery, can I forgo this terrible punishment?”
His captors agree, knowing full well that such a task is impossible. But the monk gets to work, scribbling frantically from morning until evening.
As the clock strikes midnight he knows he cannot finish this book of knowledge, and so he prays, not to his God, but to the fallen angel Lucifer.
‘Help me finish this book,’ cries the monk, ‘and you can take my soul.”
Lucifer, not one to pass up such a deal, agrees, and he finishes the behemoth of a book for the man. As a note of gratitude, the monk adds an illustration to the pages of the book, which is a sketch of the devil himself.
Discovery
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Let’s go back to the year 1648. It’s the last year of what’s called the “Thirty Years War”, a war that involved many European states and would claim millions of lives. What was it over?
Well, religion for one, and of course power. In July of that year, the Swedish army had overcome the army defending the city of Prague, a city located in the modern-day Czech Republic.
What they found in a monastery there was something no man had ever seen before. They discovered a book, an old and spectacular book, something so big that it could hardly be picked up.
It contained the full Latin bible. It contained tales from ancient history and it also contained a vast knowledge of medicine. Was this the book that the monk had written when in cahoots with the devil?
One thing for sure is that it was, and still is, the largest illustrated medieval manuscript ever created, and yes, inside it was a drawing of the devil. The book became known as the “Codex Gigas.” In Latin, that simply translates to “Giant Book.”
The Giant Book
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A giant it is, too. The 320 pages are made from Vellum, a material made from animal hide often used for writing. Believe it or not, it took 160 donkeys to get enough hide to create the book.
The total page count is unknown, as many pages went missing throughout history and today only 310 remain – still, quite the feat for a medieval scribe, especially if forced to write this book in just one night!
The Devil’s Bible, Codex Gigas, is 36 inches (91 cm) tall, 20 inches (50.8 cm) wide, and 8.7 inches (22cm) thick. It weighs about the same as many of you folks watching this show, weighing in at 165 pounds (74kg).
Suffice to say, when the Swedes saw this thing they were blown away. They’d seen nothing like it. No one had, in any country. It was a work of brilliance, and as we said, it didn’t just contain the full Christian bible but had chapters on history and medicine.
There were even pages containing information on things such as exorcisms and how to repent for one’s sins. But who wrote it?
Who Wrote It?
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That is the question that has always confounded historians. You see, while it’s written in Latin, it also contains the Hebrew, Greek, and Slavic alphabets.
So, maybe a lot of people wrote that thing, thought historians, but on further analysis over the years, most historians agree that the handwriting, the mood, and the illustrations, must have come from just one person.
Taking into account the work that went into such a book, one author would have been writing and sketching day-in, day-out, for at least twenty years, maybe even 30 years.
That, or some chastised monk made a deal with the devil one night while awaiting his execution. But who was this guy?
Well, as the legend goes, he was named “Herman the Recluse”, and was a 13th century monk working in Bohemia, part of today’s Czech Republic. What do we know about Herman?
Given his epithet, we know he probably didn’t get out much. In Latin, his name was “Hermannus Heremitus”, which you can guess relates to the word “hermit.”
So, did Herman make a pact with the devil and get the book finished in just one night, or did he live up to his name and stay home for 20 or 30 years until the book was completed?
The answer is he most likely spent his entire life writing the manuscript, given that people didn’t tend to live too long back then. But why did Herman give the Prince of Darkness a page all to himself?
The Devil’s Bible
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It’s not exactly clear, but if you open the book with the devil exposed, the opposite page is an illustration of a Heavenly City. Perhaps Herman was making a point.
Live a life of sin and this is the fella you’ll meet after you die or live a sinless life and you’ll get a ticket to heaven.
In the pages after the picture of the devil, the reclusive monk gives detailed instructions of how to exorcise the prince of darkness from either people or inanimate objects.
Some spells were supposed to heal the sick and two spells related to conjuring the devil. The book is obviously ant-devil, so you might ask, why is there a conjuring spell?
Well, historians now believe that the conjuring spells were to protect people from the devil, not get into bed with him. As for the missing pages, some scholars believe they were intentionally removed.
Why, you might ask? Well, that’s where the conspiracy theories come in. Maybe the lost pages contained something that mortals like you were never meant to see.
Or maybe they were just stolen, or perhaps in time the information on those pages was deemed offensive.
The Curse
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We know that in 1697 the book was damaged. It was sitting in the Stockholm Castle in Sweden when the building caught on fire.
As the story goes, according to a vicar named Johann Erichsons who wrote about the firesome 50 years later, the book was thrown from the building and it landed on someone.
Imagine that, a book weighing the same as an adult male falling on someone’s head. We guess the victim was severely injured. Codex Gigas, the Devil’s Bible, was still intact at the end of the ordeal, although it’s said some pages went missing.
Given that accident, some people have said the Devil’s Bible, Codex Gigas, is cursed and will bring misfortune to anyone who goes near it.
That’s probably not true, since it’s been sitting in the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm for a long time and it hasn’t seemed to have cursed the place yet.
On top of that, thousands upon thousands of people have seen it in that museum and we expect they didn’t get cursed, either.
