A gigantic Devil's Bible has been found in Czech republic with mysterious paintings referring to Lucifer.
The gigantic Satan's bible discovered in Czech
The Codex Gigas is the largest surviving medieval manuscript in the world.
At nearly nine inches (22cm) thick and 36 inches (92cm) tall, the book
is so large that it is said to have required more than 160 animal skins
to complete.
But it's not just its size that has surprised historians.
Inside is a menacing full-page colour image of the Devil, leading many to believe the pages themselves are cursed.
The mysterious manuscript is today housed within the National Library of
Sweden in Stockholm and nicknamed 'the Devil's Bible'. The text
requires at least two people to lift its 165lbs (74kg) of leather
binding and vellum pages.
But how it was created is still unknown.
Legend has it that a monk from the Middle Ages was sentenced to being
walled up alive for breaking his monastic vows. To avoid punishment, the
monk promised to write, in a single night, a book containing all human
knowledge.
As midnight approached, the monk became desperate and turned to Lucifer
for help, offering to make a pact to finish the book in exchange for his
soul.
Lucifer agreed and signed the work by adding a self-portrait of himself.
In the colourful image, he is placed against an empty landscape framed
by two large towers.
According to a report by National Geographic several years ago,
handwriting analysis by palaeographer Michael Gullick at the National
Library of Sweden indicated that one scribe did compose the entire
manuscript.
As well as handwriting, a signature within the text – 'hermann inclusis'
– points to the fact there was likely to have only been a single
author.
The ink is also made from crushed insect nests, and Gullick claims it is
highly unlikely one scribe would use different types of ink.
Meanwhile, tests to recreate the calligraphy of the Devil's Bible
suggest it would take five years of non-stop writing to create it,
according to a report in The Line Up.
'Clearly, the author of this massive tome was possessed by something to
create such a masterwork. Whether it was the power of light or darkness,
is lost to time,' the report claims.
The Codex Gigas contains five long texts along with the complete Bible.
The book begins with the Old Testament, and it is followed by two works
by Flavius Josephus who lived in the first century AD. It ends with the
New Testament and the last of the long works is a Chronicle of Bohemia
by Cosmas from Prague.
Some researchers believe the legend of the punished monk comes from a
misunderstanding in the signature of the book which reads Hermanus
inclusus. That single Latin word 'inclusus' was thought to signify a
horrific punishment, but the word's true meaning is closer to 'recluse'.
This means the signature could have been made by a solitary monk who
chose to shut out the outside world and dedicate his life to the Codex
Gigas.
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