Dear Friends,
This book has fascinated me for many years. I believe that this forum should be used to highlight people and objects of interest to all open-minded and inherently inquisitive persons like myself so today I share with you the story of The Devil’s Bible, also known as the Codex Gigas, Liber Pergrandis or Gigas Librorum.
This book was created in Bohemia. The first mention of the Devil’s Bible comes from the year 1295, but it is supposed that the manuscript is about 65 years older. The book was owned by a small Benedictine
monastery of Podlažice near Chrudim, most likely around 1229. However, no records about its origin, author or reason for writing it have been preserved. The Benedictines is a monastic tradition that stems from the origins of the Christian monastic movement in the late third century. They regard Saint Benedict as their founder and guide even though he did not establish a Benedictine Order as such. He wrote a Rule for his monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy and he foresaw that it could be used elsewhere. At first it was one of a number of rules accepted by a particular monastery but later, especially through the promotional efforts of Charlemagne and his son Louis, it became the rule of choice for monasteries of Europe from the ninth century to this day.
The book is unusually large; it is thus no wonder that it was compared to the Seven Wonders of the World in the Middle Ages. It is about 900 mm tall, 505 mm wide and weighs an awesome 75 kilograms. It contains 312 parchment folios, hence 624 pages. It is reckoned that the skin of about 160 donkeys was necessary to acquire the writing material. What is fascinating is the unity of the book, concord of the writing and initial letters, harmony of the overall composition and individual details; all the texts are still legible even today. All the indications are that it was a life work of one person. Historians estimate that the scribe in question must have conceivably spent as many as twenty years on such a monumental work.
The existence of the book is connected with a legend about the Devil, according to which it was also given its popular name – the Devil’s Bible. The legend tells of a monk who once lived in the east of the Czech kingdom, in the monastery of Podlažice, and was sentenced to be walled up alive for his sinful deed. In order to avoid the punishment, he promised to write the largest book that the world had ever seen in a single night. His accusers were fascinated by the proposal and allowed him the chance to escape his sentence. However, at midnight the monk realised that he could not finish it in time. Therefore, he called upon the devil for help. The legend has it that the monk drew the image of the devil into the book out of his gratitude.
However, even though he escaped the punishment, his life turned to hell and he spent the remainder of his days attempting to atone for his sins by indulging in self flagellation with an implement very similar to the modern cat o' nine tails.
Despite the Satanic legend, the Codex was never condemned by the Inquisition but, on the contrary, it became the focus of interest of scholars and lovers of art and curiosities. The Inquisition was a Roman Catholic tribunal for discovery and punishment of heresy, which was marked by the severity of questioning and punishment and lack of rights afforded to the accused. It was actually instituted by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) in Rome. In 1233,Pope Gregory IX resurrected, (forgive the pun), the Inquisition to combat the heresy of the Abilgenses, a religious sect in France. By 1255, the Inquisition was in full gear throughout Central and Western Europe. Those accused of heresy were sentenced at an auto de fe, Act of Faith. Clergyman would sit at the proceedings and would deliver the punishments. Punishments included confinement to dungeons, physical abuse and torture. Those who reconciled with the church were still punished and many had their property confiscated, as well as were banished from public life. Those who never confessed were burned at the stake without strangulation; those who did confess were strangled first. During the 16th and 17th centuries, attendance at auto de fe reached as high as the attendance at bullfights During that time thousands of books and manuscripts considered by the church to be promoting heresy were burnt and the fact that the Codex survived only added to its mystique.
About half of the Codex consists of the entire Latin Bible in the Vulgate version, except for the books of Acts and Revelation, which are from a pre-Vulgate version. They are in the order Genesis-Ruth, Isaiah-Daniel, Hosea-Malachi, Job, Samuel & Kings, Psalms-Song of Solomon, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus, Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Maccabees. Between the Testaments are Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews and Wars of the Jews, as well as Isidore of Seville's encyclopedia Etymologiae and medical works of Hippocrates, Theophilus, Philaretus, and Constantinus. Following a blank page, the New Testament commences with Matthew-Acts, James-Revelation, and Romans-Hebrews. Following the picture of the devil, Cosmas of Prague's Chronicle of Bohemia, a list of brothers in the Podlažice monastery, and a calendar with necrologium, magic formulae and other local records round out the codex. The entire document is written in Latin, in addition, it contains Hebrew, Greek, and Slavic alphabets. It also contains the so-called Penitential – a manual for priests with a list of sins and appropriate ways of atonement. And exactly here, on page 290 recto, the most extraordinary thing can be found – an almost half-a-metre-tall colour figure of the devil is depicted here. Several pages that follow are dark and gloomy both in their appearance and in their content. They contain medical incantations to drive out falling sickness, ague or to detect a thief. This chapter is followed by the most valuable document – The Chronicle of Bohemia (Chronica Bohemorum) by the Dean of the Prague Chapter Cosmas (1045-1125). This copy is one of the oldest and best. At the very end, there is a list of the days on which Easter would fall over the next few years
In 2007, the National Library of the Czech Republic, in conjunction with the National Library of Sweden,
hosted an exhibition where the original Devil’s Bible will be presented to the public. The exhibition was open to the public from 20th September 2007 until 9th March 2008. Apart from the original of the rare manuscript itself, the visitor had the opportunity to become better acquainted with the content of this fascinating book and follow its dramatic journey through the centuries.
You can download the book at the following link. It is 2.86 GB.
http://www.kat.ph/benedictine-monastery-of-podla%C5%BEice-codex-gigas-complete-book-626-tiff-files-t2947116.html
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