File:Devil_codex_Gigas.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- illuminated manuscript
- Named after
- devil
- Author
- Bohemia
- Material used
- vellum
- Collection
- National Library of Sweden
- Location
- National Library of Sweden
- Official website
- kb.se/codex-gigas/eng
- Image
- Devil codex Gigas.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Codex Gigas
- inventory number
- A 148
- number of pages
- 310
- language of work or name
- Latin
- exemplar of
- Chronica Boemorum
- title
- Codex Gigas
- IIIF manifest URL
- www.wdl.org/en/item/3042/manifest
- inception
- 1300-00-00
- different from
- The Satanic Bible
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Encyclopedic overview
The Codex Gigas opened to the page with the distinctive portrait of the Devil from which the text received its byname, the Devil's Bible.
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). It is a Romanesque Latin Bible, with other texts, some secular, added in the second half of the book. Very large illuminated bibles were typical of Romanesque monastic book production, but even among these, the page-size of the Codex Gigas is exceptional. The manuscript is also known as the Devil's Bible due to its highly unusual full-page portrait of Satan, the Devil, and the legend surrounding the book's creation. 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Codex Gigas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.