The Devil's Bible

The Codex Gigas is the largest surviving manuscript from the middle ages, measuring 92x50x22cm and weighs about 75kg. It includes almost the entire Vulgate, except the books of Revelations and Acts, as well as various other texts. It was written in a monestary in Bohemia, now Czech territory, in the 13th century by one single monk who appears to have volunteered to be isolated in a solitary cell, so that he might spend all his spare time to finish the book. Scholars have studied the manuscript and concluded that it really seems to have been written by the same person. It has been nicknamed the Devil's Bible, because it contains a full-page picture of the Devil.

According to legend he had broken the monestary rules, and had been sentenced to "inclusion" - being walled in alive. In order to escape the punishment he vowed to write a book containing all human knowledge (and would glorify the monastery for all future) - in one single night. As the night passed by he realised that he would not have time to finish, so he prayed not to God but to Satan to help him write the book in exchange for his soul. The Devil agreed and as a final thanks the monk drew the picture.

Through the years the bible has changed owners a few times. Latest in 1648 when our great ancestors plundered Prague at the end of the 30 years' war... Miraculously, it survived the fire at Tre Kronor, but only because someone had the great sense to throw it out a window. The book is now kept at the Swedish Royal Library. The page with the picture of the Devil, which by the way is page 290, is quite blackened, as is the pages closest before it. After staring at it with magnifying glasses for a day some scholars concluded that it had not been touched by the fire at all. The book is written on vellom (leather) and the reason the pages are blackened is that they have been exposed to significantly much more UV-light than all other pages in the manuscript. For 800 years people have turned to page 290 to watch the Devil over and over again...

Ps. I think that Mårten had a point when he suggested that it was a bad idea to go to central and eastern Europe without knowing the Swedish "international politics" from Gustav Wasa throughout the Napoleonic wars. Ds.