Codex Gigas is Latin for Giant Book. Now you know why they had to give it a more exciting name. Giant Book just doesn't do anything for you. The name may be boring, but no one can say it's inaccurate.
The codex is bound in a wooden folder, covered in leather and intricate metalwork. It is 2.5 feet high, 20 inches wide, and 8.5 inches thick. It weighs 165 pounds; that's 35 pounds more than I weigh. It has 310 sheets of parchment (620 pages); that's 160 dead cows. Originally, it was ten sheets (20 pages) longer. At some point, ten pages went MIA. Scholars are pretty sure those missing pages contained "The Rule of St. Benedict." (I've read it before. It's not much of a loss.)
The codex was apparently written by a Benedictine monk known as Herman the Recluse. The monastery in which the book written was destroyed in the 15th century. The records in the codex end in the year 1229. It was written in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). However, during the Thirty Years War in 1648, the codex was seized by the Swedish. It has been housed safely in in the National Library in Stockholm. It is not usually on view, but a few years ago, it was loaned to a library in the Czech Republic and people flocked to see the famous book. It was the first time the codex had been on Czech soil in 359 years.
Historians have conducted handwriting analysis and believe that the massive book is the work of a single monk. Even writing around the clock, it would have taken a single author five full years to complete the project. That's not including the illumination and illustrations. It probably took about twenty years to complete, and, amazingly, the writing shows no signs aging, frailty, illness, or any other infirmity on the part of the author. This makes Herman the Recluse the most consistent person ever.
About one half of the codex is a copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible, except for Acts and Revelation, which are taken from an earlier translation. The books are in a different order from the modern Bible. They're ordered like this: Genesis-Ruth, Isaiah-Daniel, Hosea-Malachi, Job, Samuel, Kings, Psalms-Song of Solomon, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus, Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees.
Then you have: "The Antiquities of the Jews" and "The Wars of the Jews" by the historian Josephus, Isidore of Seville's encyclopedia "Etymologiae," and several medical texts.
After a blank page, the New Testament starts: Matthew-Acts, James-Revelation, and Romans-Hebrews.
The most famous feature of the book is on page 290. A full-page illustration of the devil. There is no caption or explanation of any kind. This page in the center of the codex is darker than ever other page. People used to think this was a sign of evil, but we now know that when parchment is exposed to light it "tans" or darkens. Obviously, everyone wants to look at the creepy random devil.
Why was this huge project even undertaken? Well, probably because there wasn't much else to do in Benedictine monasteries back then. Plus, it also would have brought lots of prestige to the monastery.
But that's not exciting enough. I (and every other person ever) prefer the legend. So, here it is.
Once upon a time, there was a monk who broke his vows and was given what is probably the absolute worst punishment ever- being walled up alive. But he cut a deal with his superiors. If they would spare his life, he would write, in a single night, a manuscript that would bring honor to the monastery forever.
Well, he said all that, then realized that was actually impossible. So he did what any reasonable person would do- he sold his soul to the devil so the devil would write the book for him. Well, the devil took him up on the deal, but not without adding a big picture of himself right smack dab in the middle of it.
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