Mysterious Book: Codex Gigas
by A huge mysterious medieval book, penned by a Benedictine monk on animal skin with bizarre devilish illustration and incantation. But who has the missing pages, and why?
Codex Gigas – literally translated means “Giant Book”, photograph below, with a box of matches resting on it, gives an idea of the scale of the almost metre long text, it takes two people to lift it, which makes it the largest medieval manuscript in the world.
The book can be found in the National library in Stockholm – it has 600 pages – all made from animal (donkey) skin, the front and back page have been constructed from leather bound wood, adorned with carved metal.
In terms of intrinsic value, when the book was last moved, it was insured for over £ 15 million.
Author of the Codex Gigas
The book was thought to have been in the early 13th century in the Bohemian Benedictine monastery near Chrudim – in the Czech Republic. The identity of the author remains a mystery. Handwriting tests however, reveal that the entire book has a consistency of lettering and illustration which confirm that one single author – showing no signs of fatigue or even mood change (which is unusual) wrote/drew the entire main body of text.
Contents of the Codex Gigas
The book is written in Latin and contains a full version of both the Old and New Testaments (Excluding the Book of Acts and Revelation).
Along-side the bible, is a transcript of Isodore of Seville’e encyclopaedia “Etymologiae”– a summary of universal knowledge which contained some ground-breaking (but not widely accepted) information – including his idea that the world was a round, rather than a flat disc.
Image source – Isoldore of Seville Image source
The book also contains a copy of the “Antiquities of the Jews” and “The Jewish Wars” – originally written by Flavius Josephus in around 93AD – and is a slightly amended version of the Hebrew Bible Books.
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Post CommentLouie Jerome
On July 6, 2009 at 5:17 am
Very interesting article. The missing pages intrigue me. I recently read a novel called ‘The End of Mr Y’ where a student finds an old book that is said to have magical powers. Pages have been removed from it and she goes in search of the secret. I wonder if the author knew about this book.
Unofre Pili
On July 6, 2009 at 6:10 am
Very interesting indeed. I have came across this, and thought of sharing it at Triond, but I doubt if I could have came up with an article as nice as you did it.
R J Evans
On July 6, 2009 at 7:52 am
Spooky! This sent a chill down my spine at one point! Blogegd at webphemera.
Yark
On July 6, 2009 at 10:35 am
1200BC?
I think they mean AD.
s hayes
On July 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
Hi Yark – well spotted, a fix has been submitted and a correction is pending x
ttees
On July 6, 2009 at 2:32 pm
if you notice… the drawing of “the devil” is on the direct opposite page of “The Kingdom of heaven”.
which is meant to symbolize the choice between Good and Evil.
There was a documentary on the National Geographic about this.
Patrick Bernauw
On July 6, 2009 at 3:35 pm
What a fascinated article! I love all those damned books… but I never heard of this one!
lindalulu
On July 6, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Interesting article indeed!
Lauren Axelrod
On July 6, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Wow, interesting story Sean.
Stephen J. Ardent
On July 6, 2009 at 9:36 pm
How can the book have been written in 1200BC and include all the writing that it supposedly contains?
Andrew Davies
On July 6, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Very interesting topic, I love history.
Emily Ashley
On July 6, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I wish you had even more info. I missed this last night, except for the last 15 mins! Grrrr!
Stacey T Pollock
On July 7, 2009 at 4:59 am
Fascinating article!
melchizadec
On July 7, 2009 at 6:21 am
To my knowledge, no one has a book of “Revelations”. This is just another article from someone who doesn’t know The Holy Bible at all.
melchizadec
On July 7, 2009 at 6:23 am
One more thing. The animal skin “may” be that old but that doesn’t mean the writing or inscriptions are that old.
Mike Franklin
On July 7, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I am writing this with a heavy heart because in this age of open content and the voice of the user being free to speak to the speaker, many comments here have disappeared… including my own
And for what sin have we seen this? Have we cursed or vexed the holder of this domain… or the author, applying vulgarisms and obscenities? No, we merely pointed out inaccuracies in dating… BC and AD to be exact, mistakes that most would have already detected anyway.
Socyberty does not exhibit any goodwill to its readers by doing this and while still yet allowing the same inaccuracies to stand in the article in question.
In other words, we were booted without so much as a ‘thank you’ for the corrections.
Best
richard reed
On July 7, 2009 at 2:51 pm
as always you give us a blessing with another amazing piece..stay blessed my friend,..your fan..Rich
George
On July 7, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I would like to have heard more about these jewish wars, were they profit driven blood baths?
Mike
On July 7, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Informational with a very deep meaning for the Jewish religion.
valli
On July 8, 2009 at 3:29 am
Very interesting.
rizzei
On July 8, 2009 at 7:20 am
i’ve never seen anything like it:) nice read
eminemgrl123
On July 8, 2009 at 7:31 am
What did that last quip about the twin towers have to do with the rest of the piece? Still, good write. Very informative.
Brian
On July 8, 2009 at 9:25 am
For those with “heavy hearts”, you really need to take yourself less seriously. If, as you said, posts about the BC error were removed, I for one appreciate not having to read through multiple posts stating the same obvious correction. The error was noted early on, and the author responded. Enough said.
Rachel
On July 8, 2009 at 11:58 am
Wow this amazing and so informing. Kinda makes me want to become a historian.
jhonny 2 by five
On July 8, 2009 at 2:35 pm
ya it defly was a story, can has you halp me with mine?
Francy
On July 8, 2009 at 2:41 pm
very informative article.
keep sharing
CzA
On July 8, 2009 at 3:14 pm
The JEWS…..
THEY did this.
!
godsworker
On July 8, 2009 at 8:25 pm
##discovering!!!##
Purnomosidhi
On July 8, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Interesting.. It attracts people curiousity
tahirkhalil
On July 9, 2009 at 12:11 am
well done sean…very intresting story
pvpmaster1
On July 9, 2009 at 12:42 pm
wtf! i am scared. who is that? that smoke with a face
Athlyn Green
On July 9, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Wow! That’s quite the face in the smoke at the Twin Towers. What a strange occurance. This is an intriguing article. Bookmarked.
Lucas Dié
On July 10, 2009 at 5:57 am
great article! I think you are on the right track on the pillars of Actum, most original link!
Beth Suess
On July 10, 2009 at 8:52 am
great article! Very informative, I wish you had even more info.
Jackie118
On July 10, 2009 at 11:41 am
This is incredible and extremely eerie!!! Glad I didn’t read the article just before I went to bed!
James DeVere
On July 10, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Ms. Hayes, you are the jewel of Triond! Great finding a writer that you cling to each word. Nice work. In light of the oldest bible being now placed on-line, this is a fascinating read. Thank-you . j
Will Gray
On September 5, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Fantastic article! I have been investigating this book for some time and the mystery is quite fascinating.
Ruby Hawk
On September 13, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I hadn’t heard of the book but I will do some investigating, very interesting.
Mike Thomas
On September 16, 2009 at 6:43 am
Extremely informative and entertaining! Great content!
god helper
On November 9, 2009 at 7:55 pm
this sent chill down my spine. i will wipe out hte devil and darkness once and for all.
DaBaR
On November 13, 2009 at 7:07 pm
WoOWOowW amaizing!!
Kay
On December 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Someone below mentioned they were glad they didn’t read this before bed…
Well I watched the NatGeo program on the Codex before bed and literally couldn’t sleep! I kept thinking about it and finally had to get up and do an internet search.
I wasn’t scared as much as fascinated. I studied medieval history in college and am surprised I hadn’t heard about this impressive work before. Wow!
Thanks for this article and the pictures.
Aleksandar Radojicic
On March 14, 2010 at 4:39 pm
This is amazing. A great article, too. I would blog it if I could hehe. Although I’m pretty sure i saw the thing that was on the middle of the cover of the book somewhere. It seems so familliar.
colman kibo
On April 20, 2010 at 4:33 am
the thing is so terribble and mysterious.
alvinwriter
On November 8, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Excellent article! This boog is a big mystery!
tonyleather
On January 27, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Great article. You obviously see things in a similar way to myself. I am going to comment on several of your pieces – they will be fescinating, I’m sure – and hope thart you will be kind enough to reciprocate? Thanks.
J.I. Smith
On March 5, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Great post. You seem to write about a lot of interesting things.
Also, I wonder why the title of the book is Greek when the writing’s in Latin. :/
James
kesasa
On June 21, 2011 at 10:32 am
interesting story!