Codex Gigas

The manuscript was created in the early 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice in Chrast, Bohemia, now a region in the Czech Republic. The manuscript contains the complete Latin Bible in the Vulgate version, as well as other popular works, all written in Latin. Between the Old and New Testaments is a selection of other popular medieval reference works: Flavius Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War, Isidore of Seville's encyclopedia Etymologiae, the chronicle of Cosmas of Prague (Chronica Boemorum), and medical works: an early version of the Ars medicinae compilation of treatises, and two books by Constantine the African.

Eventually finding its way to the imperial library of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor in Prague, the entire collection was taken as spoils of war by the Swedish Empire in 1648 during the Thirty Years' War, and the manuscript is now preserved at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm, where it is on display for the general public.

Description

The codex's bookbinding is wooden boards covered in leather, with ornate metal guards and fittings. At 92 cm (36 in) long, 50 cm (20 in) wide and 22 cm (8.7 in) thick, it is the largest known medieval manuscript. Weighing 74.8 kg (165 lb), Codex Gigas is composed of 310 leaves of vellum said to be made from the skins of 160 donkeys, or perhaps calfskin, covering 142.6 m² (1,535 sq ft) in total. The manuscript includes illuminations in red, blue, yellow, green, and gold. Capital letters at the start of books of the bible and the chronicle are elaborately illuminated in several colours, sometimes taking up most of the page; 57 of these survive. The start of the Book of Genesis is missing. There are also 20 initials with blue letters and vine decorations in red. There are also two images representing Heaven and Earth during the Creation, as blue and green circles with respectively the sun, moon, and some stars, and a planet all of sea with no landmasses. Within books, major capitals are much enlarged, taking up the height of about five to six lines of text in red ink and placed in the margins. Less important divisions, such as the start of verses, are slightly enlarged within the text and highlighted with yellowish ink around the letter forms.

The codex has a unified look as the nature of the writing is unchanged throughout, showing no signs of age, disease, or mold on the part of the scribe. This may have led to the belief that the whole book was written in a very short time (see § Legend). Medieval epigraphers investigating the book estimate that it took over 20 years to transcribe, and the codex is now generally understood to have produced between 1204 and 1230.

The codex's extraordinary length, size, and detail have given rise to the legend that it was written by one scribe in one night with help from the Devil himself. It initially contained 320 sheets. However, twelve of these were subsequently removed. It is unknown who removed the pages or for what purpose.

Illustration of the Devil

Folio 290 recto, otherwise empty, includes a full-page portrait of Satan, the Devil, about 50 cm (20 in) tall. Directly opposite the Devil is a full page depiction of the Kingdom of Heaven, thus juxtaposing contrasting images of Good and Evil as Christian symbols. The Devil is shown frontally, crouching with arms uplifted in a dynamic posture. He wears a white loincloth with small comma-shaped red dashes, which have been interpreted as the tails of ermine furs, a common symbol of sovereignty. He has no tail, and his body, arms, and legs are of relatively normal human proportions. His hands and feet end with only four fingers and toes each, terminating in large claws; his claws and large horns are red.

He has a large, dark green head, and his hair forms a skull cap of dense curls. The eyes are wide open, small, with red pupils, and his red-tipped ears are large. His open mouth reveals his small white teeth, and two long red tongues protrude from the corners of his mouth. The double tongues evoke the forked tongue of a serpent, a common association with Satan in Christian iconography and demonology since biblical times.

Several pages before this double spread are written in yellow characters on a blackened parchment and have a very gloomy character, somewhat different from the rest of the codex. The discoloration is because these vellum pages have been exposed to the light as readers turned the pages toward the infamous illustration over the centuries.