Have you ever heard of a medieval artifact called "Codex Gigas" or "Devil's Bible"? Concurrently, this book is the heaviest in the world - its weight is over 75 kilograms. In total, this book contains 312 sheets made of cow leather.
The history of this artifact begins in the 17th century in Sweden, during the reign of Queen Christina. It was then that someone from her entourage gave the queen this book. Her dimensions are really impressive:
1) Weight - more than 75 kilograms.
2) Height - 90 centimeters.
3) Width - 50 centimeters.
4) Thickness - 22 centimeters.
All pages are bound by a wooden binding. Moving a book like this is really tricky - it takes a few strong men to do it. All of the text written on the pages of the book was made in carbon black ink.
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Here are just a few of the texts that can be seen on the pages of this book:
1) Old Testament.
2) New Testament.
3) "Etymology" by Isidore of Seville.
4) Antiquitates Judaica by Josephus.
5) "Chronica Boemorum" by Kosma Prazhsky.
It is also interesting that most of the text is handwritten, but there are also sections that are clearly typographic. What is amazing is that, although it is clear that the text is handwritten, the letters are so much alike, as if the person who wrote the book had never been tired or lost.
Leafing through its pages, you begin to think that only a madman was capable of such a thing. And naturally, over such a long history of its existence, this book has acquired a huge number of myths and legends.
According to one legend, this book was written by only one person, imprisoned in his cell. And he wrote it in one night - the next morning he was executed.
It is believed that part of the night he really wrote the book on his own, but when he realized that he would not have time to finish the work, he called for the help of the devil himself, who in exchange asked for the soul of a sinful monk, which the latter gladly gave.
But if the book was really written by one person, all the more so imprisoned in a cell, then the question arises - how did it happen that in the cell next to him there was such a huge blank for the book? What the hell brought something?
There are many interesting things in this book, but the most interesting drawing is the image of a devil on the whole page. If I am not mistaken, the picture is on page # 290.
Interestingly, several of the previous pages were filled with ink, and the next eight pages were torn out. Which vandal did it remains a mystery. Do you know what's the funniest thing?
Despite the fact that the church is officially fighting the devil, the book has found very useful application - for many years the monks of the local monastery studied the Holy Scriptures from it.
At the moment, the book is in one of the museums in the Czech Republic. It is believed that she was there before, until 1649, when the Swedes took her to their capital as a trophy of war. However, over time, she again found herself here.
You can see the scanned Codex Gigas here.
