(via q-u-a-s-a-r)
(Source: 90s-v-i-b-e-s-blog, via q-u-a-s-a-r)
detail of “kingdom of heaven” from codex gigas
page opposite to the picture of satan “kingdom of heaven”
Revelation of St. John the Divine
Codex Gigas - the largest ancient manuscript.
It takes two people to lift the book, which is made of more than 160 animal skins. It was written in the 13th century A.D., and it currently resides in the National Library in Stockholm, Sweden. At first glance, the contents of this bizarre book are equally strange. It contains a full Latin Vulgate Bible, interspaced with several other books, including Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus, a collection of medical works by Hippocrates and Theophilus, The Chronicle of Bohemia by Cosmas of Prague, the Encyclopedia Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville, and other, smaller texts. The latter works include a text on exorcism, magical formulas, and an illustration of the heavenly city.
(Source: museum-of-artifacts)
St. John Writing the Gospel (aka St. John the Evangelist on Patmos), Master of the Rotterdam St. John on Patmos (circle of Dieric Bouts?), ca. 1465-1500
CODEX GIGAS
It is the largest extant medieval manuscript. It is assumed to have been created in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice in Bohemia (Czech Republic). It was probably written in the first third of the XIII century. In 1648 during the Thirty Years War, the work was taken and is preserved at the National Library in Stockholm, Sweden.
is also known as the “Devil’s Bible” for the great illustration of the devil contained inside and why according to a legend, the scribe was a monk who broke his monastic vows and was sentenced to be walled up alive. In order to avoid this penalthy he promised to create in one day a book to glorify the monastery (the story stems from the fact that it was the medieval belief that the copying of the texts was a privileged way for the atonement of their sins). Near midnight, he understood that his task was not possible, so he made a prayer to Lucifer asking him to help him finish the book in exchange of his soul. The devil completed the manuscript and the monk added the devil’s picture out of gratitude for his aid. In popular fiction, the 8 missing pages are rumored to contain an apocalyptic text called “ The Devil’s Prayer”.
It is contained in a skin covered with wooden cover, with metal decorations.
measures 92 centimeters long, 50 wide and 22 thick and weighs 75 kilograms. initially it contained 320 pages of vellum, but 8 of these were removed.
The code seems to have been created by a certain Herman the recluse of the Benedictine monastery Podlažice destroyed in the XV century. The code indicated 1229 as the year of completion. The book appeared later in the monastery of Sedlec and then purchased from that of Brenov. From 1477 to 1593 it was preserved in the library of a monastery in Broumov until it was not moved to Prague in 1594 became part of the collection of Rudolph II of Habsburg.
At the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648 the whole of Rudolf II collection was taken by the Swedish army.
It contains a full transcript of the Bible comes almost entirely from the “Vulgate”, except the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation of St. John, taken from the Old Latin.
Also it includes:
1) Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville
2) Two of historical works of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities and the Jewish War)
3) a history of Bohemia Cosmas of Prague
4) various treaties
5) list of the monks of the monastery Podlazicama
6) spells
7) the greek alphabet, Cyrillic and Hebrew.
The book is written in Latin.
The manuscript includes thumbnails in red, blue, yellow, green and gold. The initial capital letters are illuminated and often occupy the entire page. writing is always the same from start to finish, the handwriting is the same and this did suggest that the manuscript was written in a short period and by the same person. Some scholars think that may be the work of one man who has worked for over 20 years.
p. 577 or Folio 209 recto: contains an image of the Devil to the entire page. Some pages are written on blackened sheets different from the others. Directly opposite the devil is a full page depiction of the Kingdom of Heaven. Several pages before this are written on a blackened parchment with gloomy character, different from the rest. The reason for this is that the pages are made of vellum. Vellum tans when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Image: the Devil at page 577 in the Codex Gigas