Codex Gigas or giant book is a medieval
manuscript with the largest size that still exist. This book was written at the
beginning of the 13th century in order Benedict monastery in Bohemia podlazice.
Currently the book is stored in the Swedish Royal Library in Stockholm. It
takes energy to lift two librarians book. The book is often called "the
bible the devil" because of the large size of the pictorial illustration
of the devil inside.
Codex is put in a place made of wood, covered
with leather and decorated with metal. Height 92 cm, width 50 cm and has a
thickness of 22 cm. At first, the codex has 320 sheets of paper. But 8 sheets
of it discarded. It is not known who is throwing 8 pieces and for what purpose.
There are allegations that dumped 8 sheets may contain rules of order Benedict
monastery. Weight codex nearly 75 kg. The sheets were used to write this codex
is leather that comes from 160 head of calves.
Monastery codex place is demolished in the 15th
century. Note that there is the codex codex indicates that manufacturing is
about the year 1229 AD After writing, the codex is then transferred to the Cistercians Sedlec monastery and eventually purchased by Benedict Monastery in
Byoevnov. From the year 1477-1593, the codex is stored in the library in Broumov
until finally brought to Prague in 1594 to become part of the collections of
Rudolf II. On 24 September 2007, the Codex Gigas is brought back to Prague
after 359 years.
The contents of the codex is "a sum of the
Benedictine order's knowledge", "The War of the Jews" writings
of Josephus, a list of the saints, the method for determining the date of the
celebration of Easter, the entire Bible the Latin pre-vulgate, Isidore of
Seville's encyclopedia Etymologiae , Cosmas of Prague's Chronicle of Bohemia,
various tractates (from history, etymology and physiology), a calendar with
nekrologium, rosters Podlaice the monks in the monastery, magic formulas and
other records.
The entire contents of the codex is written in
Latin. The manuscript is also decorated with colors like red, blue, yellow,
green and gold. The whole case was given striking colors. What is remarkable is
the entire contents of the codex is written with remarkable relevance between
pages. Which means that the book is written by one person with a sustainable
mind. This makes a lot of experts believe that the entire codex was written in
a very short time.
On page 290, there is a picture of the devil
with a height of about 50 cm. A few pages before the image is written on a
sheet of blackened skin and made with a dark character, which makes it
different from the overall contents of the codex.
According to legend, the author of the codex is
a monk who violate the rules of the monastery and was sentenced to be tied on
the wall in a standing position for life. This monk begged forgiveness from
extraordinary punishment cruel. Instead, he promised to create a book that
would glorify the monastery forever, and human knowledge, and he promised to
finish it in just one night. By midnight, the monk became doubt whether he can
do that yourself. So he sold his soul to the devil for a rescue. Satan then
completed manuscript. A tribute to the devil to help him, the monk added the
devil image into the codex. Despite the legend involving Satan, at the time of
the inquisition, the codex was kept by the monastery and studied by many
scholars to this day.
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