The mystery behind 'the Devil's Bible': Europe's largest surviving manuscript

The Devil's Bible is formally titled the Codex Gigas.

Europe's largest surviving manuscript, the Codex Gigas, is commonly referred to as "the Devil's Bible' by many who are left baffled by the mysterious text.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The manuscript, held in the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm, is nearly nine inches thick, 36 inches tall and weighs around 165 lbs, requiring two people to move it, according to the Daily Mail.

It is believed have taken 160 animal skins to complete.

"Inside is a menacing full-page color image of the Devil, leading many to believe the pages themselves are cursed," states the Daily Mail.

No one knows exactly how this bewildering text was created. However, legend says a monk from the Middle Ages was sentenced to extreme punishment, walled up alive for breaking the monastic vows. "To avoid punishment, the monk promised to write, in a single night, a book containing all human knowledge," according to the Daily Mail.

The monk is said to have become desperate as the night passed, and turned to Lucifer for help.

He would sign over his soul, if Lucifer would finish the book. Lucifer agreed and added his own signature to the piece by creating the self-portrait of himself.

"Clearly, the author of this massive tome was possessed by something to create such a masterwork. Whether it was the power of light or darkness, is lost to time," stated The Line Up.

However, some researchers believe the mix-up and creation of the punished monk myth derives from a "misunderstanding in the signature of the book which reads Hermanus inclusus." "Inclusus" is a Latin word thought to signify horrific punishment; the word's real meaning is more similar to "recluse."

Which means this book could have been created by "a solitary monk who chose to shut out the outside world and dedicate his life to the Codex Gigas," according to the Daily Mail.

According to Michael Gullick, at the National Library of Sweden, one person composed the entire book. The handwriting appears to be created by a single author, and the ink is made of crushed insect nests.

Attempts to recreate the Devil' Bible assume it would have taken five years of non-stop writing for anyone to create such a large manuscript.

Within the Codex Gigas are five long texts and the complete Bible.

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