File 5397 · October 17, 2026 · 28:59
The Devil's Bible (Codex Gigas)
In 1697 a burning castle in Stockholm threw a 165-pound book out of a window. Written by one hand in a monastery that no longer exists, it holds the Bible, a list of the dead, a page of spells, a full-page portrait of the Devil, and a seventh-century encyclopedia chapter on the dog-headed men, the Cyclopes and the headless Blemmyae. Its first page is missing.
This file reads the page before the missing one, the page after it, and the monster chapter in between.
Plates marked RECONSTRUCTION were made for this file. Plates marked RECORD are photographs of the manuscript, period paintings and newspaper pages.
Codex scans: Codex Gigas, National Library of Sweden. Images: Library of Congress, World Digital Library.
In the Cryptid Database
Sources
- Codex Gigas (Stockholm, National Library of Sweden, MS A 148). Complete digitisation: Library of Congress, World Digital Library item 3042, 629 images. Isidore, Etymologiae XI.iii is at image 448. Link
- National Library of Sweden, "The Codex Gigas." Link
- Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, Book XI, chapter iii, "De portentis." English: Barney, Lewis, Beach, Berghof, The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge, 2006).
- Genesis 6:4 and 6:11, Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate.
- Johan Fredrik Höckert, "The Fire at the Royal Palace, Stockholm, May 7th, 1697," 1866. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
- Letter of Johannes Marcus Marci to Athanasius Kircher, 1665 or 1666. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS 408.
- Grafton Sentinel (Grafton, W. Va.), June 1964.