Codex Gigas - The Devil's Bible - unraveling the mystery surrounding her

An international team of scientists Reveal Secret of the Codex Gigas film in National Geographic.

Legend Codex Gigas is the work of a monk who breached his monastic oath, which was condemned to be walled up alive in the walls of the monastery. To avoid punishment, the monk vowed that one night will create a book that will contain all human knowledge. By midnight, the monk realized he would not be able to fulfill his promise, and therefore sold his soul to the Devil, who completed the manuscript for him. In gratitude monk painted devil on one of the pages of code.

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

Because of this image, and not because of his size, Codex Gigas was named "eighth wonder" in the Christian world. But he brought the monastery Podlazhitse not glory and destruction - the monastery was totally destroyed during the religious wars of the XV century.

Proven facts:

Codex Gigas is the largest medieval manuscript preserved until today. 92 cm long, 50 cm wide and 22 cm thick.
For his workmanship was used cowhide from 160 animals.
The weight of the code is about 75 kg. The manuscript is so large that it takes two people to be raised.
The book was written by a single person. Which is hard work and it is very hard to believe, but thanks to the graphological expertise is already proven.
Writing probably took him 30 years without interruption.
It is assumed that the author was a hermit monk who has dealt with nothing but thus amends.
This is his only work. The handwriting is unique.
The confusion that comes from the satanic bible huge portrait of the devil, but the author probably wanted to compare good and evil, because the opposite page is painted paradise city.
The confusion comes from the word "inclusus", which was interpreted as a very long hellish punishment. But "inclusus" also means a hermit.
The inks are crushed insects.
The book is contains 320 parchment leaves, 11 of which were cut off, the reason for that was probably the contents of the missing pages.
The Code has a wooden cover with leather binding metal ornaments.
In 2007. When was the first and only time, Codax Gigas was not insured with an insurance company and directly with state insurance worth over 10 million euros.



Manuscript is the work of enlightened monk monastery Podlazhitse copy of which was located in the present-day Czech Republic, but was destroyed in the 15th century during the wars of religion. The author of "Codex Gigas" was ordered to be sealed up until the end of their lives to violent crime.

Codex Gigas contains the Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgate) of St. Jerome Blessed with the exception of the books "Acts" and "Revelation." The Code is also featured encyclopedia "Etymology" Isidore of Seville, "Jewish Archaeology" by Josephus, "Czech Chronicle" of Prague Cosmas other treatises on the history, etymology and physiology, calendar chronicles of the monastery Podlazhitse and magic formulas exorcistic spells and other local legends. The manuscript is written entirely in Latin. Handwriting, which are written pages, is absolutely uniform throughout the book, creating the legend that the code is written in a short time.

The pages of the manuscript are adorned with illustrations in red, blue, yellow and green. 290th page contains a unique 50-inch drawing of a devil. Some pages of the manuscript are darker than others, but their letters are faded, due to the impact that light has on parchment. This shows that for centuries these pages are the most exposed to light for a long time.

Codex Gigas was created Podlazhitse Benedictine monastery, near the Czech town of Chrudim. For the first time the Codex Gigas is mentioned in 1229g. Later the code was submitted to the Cistercian monastery Sedlek who sells it Brzhevnov Benedictine monastery. In the period 1477-1593 the Devil's Bible kept in the library of the monastery in Broumov and in 1594g. was taken to Prague as part of the collection of Emperor Rudolf II.

At the end of the Thirty Years War, 1648g., The collection of Rudolf II was stolen from Swedish soldiers and was taken to Sweden as war booty. In 1649g. manuscript within the Royal Library in Stockholm, where it is stored until today. In 2007. after more than 300 years Codex Gigas is again returned to Prague, where for one year is set out in the Czech National Library.

In 2007. returned to Prague largest medieval manuscript in the world "Codex Gigas" or "Devil's Bible".