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| Image source - Google | Image by - atlasobscura |
The Codex
Gigas (English: Giant Book) is the largest surviving gothic illuminated
manuscript in the world, at a length of 92 cm (36 in).It is also
known as the Devil's
Bible because of a very strange full-page portrait of the devil ,and
the legend surrounding its establishment.
It was made in the mid 13th century in the Benedictine religious community of Podlažice in Bohemia , which is a region in the modern-day Czech republic .Now the
whole collection was taken as riches of war by the Swedish in 1648
and the manuscript is presently safeguarded at the National library of Sweden in Stockholm.
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| Image source - Google | Image by - atlasobscura |
The codex bookbinding is wooden boards canvassed 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 biggest known gothic manuscript.Weighing 74.8 kg (165 lb), Codex
Gigas is collected of 310 leaves claimed to be made from the skins of
160 donkeys, or calfskin, covering 142.6 m2 (1,535 sq ft) in total.It
originally contained 320 sheets, though some of these were eventually removed.It
is mysterious who removed the pages or for what impetus but it seems likely
that they contained the monastic rules of the Benedictines.
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| Image source - Google | Image by - atlasobscura |
A
picture of the devil, about 50 cm tall. Directly opposite the devil is a
full page potrait of the kingdom of heaven, thus comparing images of Good and Evil. The
devil is shown toward the front, crouching with arms uplifted in a strong
posture. He is dressed in a white loincloth with little comma-molded red dashes.
These dashes have been potray as the tails of ermine furs, a common symbol of
sovereignty. He has no tail, and his body, arms and legs are of typical human
parts. His hands and feet end with just four fingers and toes each, end in
huge claws. His tremendous horns are red as though dipped in blood.
He has
a huge, dark green head, and his hair forms a skull top of thick curls. His
eyes are small, with red pupils, and his red-tipped ears are enormous. His open
mouth uncovers his small white teeth, and two long red tongues stick out from
the edge of his mouth.
This
doubling of tongues summon negative associations with snakes, which have
forked tongues, an allegorical reference to immoral human beings. The presence of 'forked tongues' is an ancient one
and is found in the Bible (Nordenfalk 1975, n. 15).
According to
legend, the Codex was created by Herman the recluse in the Benedictine religious community of Podlažice near Chrudim in the Czech republic.The
monastery was demolished some time in the 15th century during the Hussite
revolution.Records in the codex end in the year 1229. The codex was later connected to the Cistercians Sedlec religious community and then bought by the
Benedictine religious community in Břevnov. From 1477 to 1593, it was kept in the library of a religious community in Broumov until it was taken to prague in 1594 to form a part of the
collections of the Emperor Rudolf ii.
According to
one version of a legend that was at that point recorded in the Middle Ages, the
amanuensis was a priest who broke his monastic oaths and was sentenced to be immurement . In order to avoid this rough penalty he
promised to create in one night a book to extol the monastery forever, including
all human knowledge. In midnight, he became sure that he could not complete
this task alone so he made a unique prayer, not addressed to God but to the
fallen angel Lucifer for asking him to help him to finish the book in exchange
for his soul. The devil completed the manuscript and the priest added the devil's
picture out of gratitude for his help.In tests to recreate the work, it is estimated
that coping only the calligraphy, without the etiching or beautification, would
have taken twenty years of non-stop writing.
