The Codex Gigas, a.k.a 'The Devils' Bible' is a giant book which has the entire Bible written in it alongwith some more information, of wars, spells and the procedure of exorcism.
It was created somewhere around the 13th century by a monk of Benedictine monastery in Bohemia, Czech Republic. The book is around 36 inches long, 20 inches wide and 8.7 inches thick and weighing upto 74 kg.
It's completely in Latin, indeed the word Codex Gigas means 'Giant book' in Latin. It has the complete handwritten Bible and wars fought along with some drawings. It got its name, The Devils's Bible due to a picture of the devil on one of the pages.
It is said that it's the work of only a single man. The book contains around 310 pages in total (in the beginning it had 320 pages, but the last 10 were lost within the years).
Now starts the interesting part about the book. The pages of the book are not any ordinary one. The entire book's pages are made from the skin of donkeys. Around 160 donkeys were killed for the book.
It is said that the person who created this book was himself a monk of that monastery who did something against the laws of the monastery for which he was sentenced to be walled up alive. He asked for mercy and gave his word that he would write a manuscript which will contain all the available information till then, along with the Bible, in just one night which in turn will be the thing of attraction for their monastery.
The authorities agreed to this, as they knew it was not possible. He begin his work of completing the book of the century but as midnight showed, he understood that it was not possible to complete it in one night so he asked for help from the hell. The devil heard his call and wrote the entire book within one night.
Information is not available what happened with the monk but the manuscript was kept in that monastery which in turn, brought downfall of the monastery so they have to give it to other monastery.
There also the book brought destruction. An epidemic spread in their town. Later it was added to the book collections of King Rudolf II and after that the Swedish army invaded the kingdom and took the book alongwith them.
Later a fire broke out in the castle where it was kept and to protect it from the fire a servant threw it out of the window and it landed directly on the ground due to which its binding became loose. Today the book is resting in the National library of Stockholm.
Scientist have examined the entire book and there is also a documentary by National Geographic channel regarding it. At the end they came to a conclusion that the book indeed is the work of a single person but they doubt that the real story is not the same as everyone knows. They added that the monk's punishment might have been decreased to lifetime imprisonment.
He knew that he will never be able to see the world again so he gathered his entire knowledge and gave it the form of a manuscript.
But the thing that contradict this theory is the handwriting, which remains the same throughout the book. It is said that if a single person wrote it with the drawings, then it would have took him around 30 years and in that case his handwriting in the beginning and at the end can't be same because he, as well as he would have grown old which itself makes difficult to maintain the handwriting.
One more thing is, the 10 pages which were lost. It is said that they contained the procedure of summoning the devil into the living world but the pages are still missing till date.
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