The Devil's Bible: Codex Gigas

In publicizing a documentary on the so-called "Devil's Bible," the National Geographic Channel (here) has left viewers expecting something very big and very shocking. Yes, the "Devil's Bible" is big (its Latin title, Codex Gigas, means big book), over a yard in height and weighing over 160 pounds. It is called the "Devil's Bible" because of it has a portrait of the Devil, but on the facing page, there is a picture of the City of Heaven, so the book might as well be called the "Heaven Bible." That's just not as sexy, perhaps. This unusual book deserves to be looked at with a little less hype.

The National Geographic Channel refers to the "Devil's Bible" as "one of the most mysterious texts ever written" and "the most ambitious book of its time" and emphasizes the section on exorcisms. Reference is made to the "Devil's Bible" being written on donkey skins, sounding as if the book is written on rather untreated donkey hides. Modern scholarship favors calfskin (more). Besides the use of animal skins, processed (as the skins for this book were) into vellum is not that unusual. (Why do you think your diploma is referred to as a "sheepskin"?)

In a fascinating article (here) Michael Gullick details the contents of the "Devil's Bible" (all in Latin): a complete Bible; two histories by Flavius Josephus (more); a universal encyclopedia by St. Isidore of Seville (more); short medical texts; a text on penitence; two full page pictures on facing pages, the Heavenly City and the Devil; a very short text containing exorcisms; a chronicle of Bohemia by theeleventh-twelfth-century writer, Cosmas of Prague; a list of names, probably of benefactors to the monastery; a Calendar (a guide to the liturgical year) combined with a Necrology. There was a copy of the Rule of St Benedict, the guide to monastic life, which has been cut out.

Note that the "Devil's Bible" contains "a very shot text containing exorcisms." The NGC publicity makes it sound as if texts on exorcism make up is a major part of the huge volume. Perhaps the most intriguing text included in the "Devil's Bible" is the encyclopedia by St. Isidore, the seventh century bishop and scholar, who, in honor of his attempt to record all human knowledge, is now patron saint of the Internet (more). His complete Etymologiae (his encyclopedia) is available online here... unfortunately only in the original Latin. The Order of St. Isidore, "promoting the ideals of Christian chivalry through the medium of the Internet," can be found here.

Created in Bohemia in the thirteenth century, the "Devil's Bible" was taken at the end of the Thirty Years' War (1648), to Sweden by the victorious Swedish army (more history here). In September 2007, the "Devil's Bible" was returned to Prague until January 2008 (more). Over sixty thousand people saw the "Devil's Bible" while it was in Prague (more).

There are weird legends about how the "Devil's Bible," this Codex Gigas, came to be created, perhaps with the aid of the Devil. Surely nothing about its creation could seem more diabolical than something truly amazing that has happened to the "Devil's Bible" in our time. Each of the more than six hundred huge pages has been digitized, each page carefully captured in digital photography, so that we all can sit back comfortably at our desks and pore over the infamous portrait of the Devil, the rather neglected image of the Heavenly City, and page after page after page of the exquisitely lettered text, much more comfortably than we could ever access the original manuscript. The Devil is not making me do this; it is just my pleasure to give you a key to the location on the Internet (under the patronage of St. Isidore of Seville) of this rather heavenly treasure: here.

If you found this article interesting, you might like to look at my other articles on similar topics, which you can find at "Christianity on the Fringes," here.