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What is the "Devil's Bible"?
2025-07-23 20:59:16 / MISTERE&KURIOZITETE
The Codex Giganteus , or “The Devil’s Bible ,” is an impressive medieval manuscript written in Latin . The book weighs over 74 kilograms, is 92 centimeters long, and 22 centimeters wide . It is the largest surviving manuscript written in the Middle Ages.
It consists of 310 parchment leaves taken from the skins of 160 oxen ( or calves). This codex is kept in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, in the premises of the National Library , where it arrived in 1648 as a spoil of war from the Thirty Years' War. It was previously in Prague, in the collection of Emperor Rudolf II , and is said to have come from a Bohemian Benedictine monastery .
The carefully written manuscript contains a 50- centimeter-long portrait of the Devil . And this fact prompted the birth of the legend of a sinful monk, who was condemned to be walled up alive if he did not atone for his sins , writing in one night a book that was supposed to include all human knowledge. At midnight, the desperate monk asked the Devil for help , giving him his soul in exchange .
What is hidden behind the words ?
However, examination of the text reveals something else. The writing of the book lasted for 20 years and was completed in 1229. This conclusion is reached based on the latest reported facts . The book includes the text of the Bible, the Cronica Bohemorum (1125) by Cosmas of Prague, a calendar with obituaries, magic formulas and the Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew alphabets. The author is a monk, a certain Herman Inclusus , i.e. “The Solitary ” , in the sense of isolation from the world and not “ walled up alive ” , as the legend says. /Bota.al
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