Codex Gigas
The Codex Gigas ("Giant Book"; Czech: Obří kniha) is the largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript in the world, at a length of 92 cm (36 in).
[1] Very large illuminated bibles were typical of Romanesque monastic book production,[3] but even among these, the page-size of the Codex Gigas is exceptional.
[1] Apart from the famous page with an image of the Devil, the book is not very heavily illustrated with figurative miniatures, compared to other grand contemporary Bibles.
The manuscript was created in the early 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice in Chrast, Bohemia, now a region in the modern-day Czech Republic.
[1] Between the Old and New Testaments are a selection of other popular medieval reference works: Flavius Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War,[1] Isidore of Seville's encyclopedia Etymologiae,[1] the chronicle of Cosmas of Prague (Chronica Boemorum),[1][4] and medical works: an early version of the Ars medicinae compilation of treatises,[1] and two books by Constantine the African.
[8] Weighing 74.8 kg (165 lb), Codex Gigas is composed of 310 leaves of vellum claimed to be made from the skins of 160 donkeys, or perhaps calfskin, covering 142.6 m2 (1,535 sq ft) in total.
Capital letters at the start of books of the bible and the chronicle are elaborately illuminated in several colours, sometimes taking up most of the page; 57 of these survive.
There are also two images representing Heaven and Earth during the Creation, as blue and green circles with respectively the sun, moon, and some stars, and a planet all of sea with no landmasses.
[10] The codex has a unified look as the nature of the writing is unchanged throughout, showing no signs of age, disease, or mold on the part of the scribe.
[1] Directly opposite the Devil is a full page depiction of the Kingdom of Heaven, thus juxtaposing contrasting images of Good and Evil as Christian symbols.
The Codex Gigas was spared destruction by being thrown out of a window; according to the vicar Johann Erichsons, it landed on and injured a bystander.
A list of brothers in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice, and a calendar with a necrology, magic formulae, the start of the introits for feasts, and other local records round out the codex (f.
[21] According to one version of a legend already recorded in the Middle Ages, the scribe was a Christian monk who broke his monastic vows and was sentenced to be walled up alive.
[2][22][23] In tests to recreate the work, it is estimated that reproducing the calligraphy alone (without the illustrations or embellishments) would have taken twenty years of non-stop writing.
