Codex Gigas Images Online

The Devil

Codex Gigas, otherwise known as the “Devil’s Bible” is considered the largest Medieval Latin codex. Its pages are 35 inches tall and 19 inches wide and contains the complete Bible along with several other works from Josephus and others meant to illuminate the Bible. The name “Devil’s Bible” comes from the picture of the Devil found on f. 290r. As the official website explains:

The portrait was intended to remind the viewer of sin and evil. It is opposite a page with a representation of the Heavenly City and the two pages were deliberately planned to show the advantages of a good life and the disadvantages of a bad one.

The website has lots of useful information and includes all the photos here. There are some impressive initial letters (e.g., Mark’s Gospel) and other decorations throughout. Interestingly, the only human represented appears to be Josephus. You can download high resolution images from Wikimedia Commons here.

Update: there’s more good info linked in Tommy’s post from 2007.

The beginning of Mark’s Gospel

Codex Gigas (The Devil's Bible) on YouTube

This weekend Codex Gigas (The Devil's Bible) received a lot of interest in the US. As we reported last week, there was a documentary on the the National Geographic Channel yesterday (and the week before in the UK). Apparently, many viewers searched the web for more information after the program, and it seems as if several websites have linked to this blog (e.g., here). Only today we have had over 1200 visits, which I think is all time high.

For those of us who could not see the program, there are some clips of varying quality on YouTube featuring the spectacular manuscript.

For example, we can sneak a peek from the exhibition in Prague on YouTube here. (It would probably have been impossible for a private person to produe this little home movie at the Royal Library in Stockholm where the codex is normally on exhibit. There is a guard watching the codex all the time.)

There is another clip here showing what appears to be the production of a facsimile. Does anyone understand Czech and can tell us what they are discussing?

Here is a film clip from a TV program in Spanish (TV), on the codex and its temporary transfer to Prague.

And, finally, here a clip showing how a replica for the documentary "The Codex Gigas" was made. I have read that the producers of the documentary were only aloud to turn the pages of the actual MS once.

For more scholarly material on the codex one should visit the Codex Gigas website at the Royal Library here.

Update (TW): This post has been slightly updated on December 16

Codex Gigas (The Devil's Bible) on Air

Jim West reports on his blog that National Geographic channel will air a program on the ‘Devil’s Bible‘ on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. (Sob, I don't have that channel.)

Some photos, facts and other stuff relating to the codex are available on the National Geographic Channel webpage. (Don't miss to check out the downloadable screensavers and wallpapers, including e.g., a re-creation of a monk at writing calligraphy.)

Among the facts presented:

* The Devil’s Bible is so huge that it requires at least two people to carry it.

* Once considered the eighth wonder of the world, the Codex Gigas stretches three feet long and weighs a hundred and sixty-five pounds.

* It is the only book that places the Old and New Testaments alongside violent, holy incantations.

* The Codex Gigas contains one full page – right opposite the devil portrait – of a towering Heavenly City. Although no people can be seen in the Heavenly City, it is a symbol of hope and salvation, a contrast to the portrait of the devil on the opposing page.

* The Codex Gigas includes mystical medical formulas for anything from treating ailments such as fevers and epilepsy to resolving practical problems such as finding a thief.

* The book's transfer to Prague in 2008 took a year of planning. It was insured for $15.1 million during the transfer.

* The Devil’s Bible has 600 pages, which is 310 parchment leaves, all made from donkey skins.


To this we can add that the codex is deposited in the Royal Library in Stockholm. I wonder why they did not include this information. I think it is our second most valuable book in Sweden (next to Codex Argenteum). Recently, Codex Gigas was on loan to Prague (whence we Swedes once stole it...).

Read more about this codex in our previous report here.

Update: The fact about donkey skins is probably wrong. We commented on this in the previous report in 2007, that a new analysis has shown that it is made of calf skins.

The Devil's Bible Returns to Prague

One of Sweden’s most famous booktreasures is Codex gigas, also known as “The Devil’s Bible.” As implied of its Latin name, this book is one of the largest surviving medieval books (89,5 x 49 cm, weighs 75 kg), and it contains the Old and New Testaments in pre-Vulgate Latin translations, Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, Josephus’ History of the Jews in a Latin translation, the Chronicle of Bohemia, written by Cosmas of Prague, etc.

The manuscript is written on vellum, prepared from calf skin. It was produced in the early 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlazice in Bohemia. The name, the “Devil’s Bible,” derives from the impressive picture of that potentate on fol. 290r, see here. According to a legend, the monk who copied the manuscript had been confined to his cell by way of some penance, and apparently he finished the copying in one single night with the aid of the Devil, whom he had summoned for help.

In 1594 the manuscript was acquired by the Imperial Treasury in Prague, and then brought as a war treasure to Sweden in 1648 when the Swedish army conquered the city. It was presented to the Royal Library (Kungliga Biblioteket) in Stockholm the following year. Now, after more than 350 years, it will be temporarily returned to Prague for an exhibition which opens on September 19 and runs til Januari 2008. The “Devil’s Bible” is part of the Czech cultural heritage and the planned exhibition has aroused a lot of attention. The Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolánek, and the Minister of Culture, Václav Jehlička, will be present at the grand opening, as will some representatives from Sweden.

Prior to the exhibition a large digitization project in Stockholm has been completed, and the codex now has its own web-site here, where the manuscript is presented (in Swedish, English and Czech), and where anyone can browse images of the manuscript. In a way, the manuscript has been “returned” permanently to the Czech Republic in the form of high quality images.

The exhibition at the National Library of the Czech Republic has a homepage, here.

For a recent detailed scholarly commentary on the history and contents of the manuscript, see here.

For those interested in the actual photographic process, a special photo studio was built in the underground of the Royal Library, and there are some detailed pages here (unfortunately only in Swedish, but with interesting images).

Old and new announcements in the press here and here (the latter wrongly says that the MS will be digitized in Prague).

Update: Peter Head notices in the comments that the linked scholarly article suggests that the MS was made from calf-skin, whereas I first wrote “ass skins.” Apparently, the new analysis of the MS has shown that it is indeed calf-skin, and not, as previously thought, ass-skin. I have made the change in the original text above.