Legend has it, a monk named Herman the Recluse broke his monastic vows. As punishment, he was sentenced to a miserable death. Walled up in an inescapable room, he would essentially waste away until he met his end. However, Herman wasn't done. He made a deal in an attempt to save his own life. This deal was that he would write a book listing all of humanity's knowledge in exchange for his freedom.
Realizing the task was impossible, Herman knew he needed help, so he called upon the Devil himself for assistance. The Devil agreed to help, in exchange for Herman's soul. Upon completion, a large picture of the Devil was added to the center of the book in homage to the book's true author, which is where the book gains its name.
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| Codex Gigas, open to the infamous picture of the Devil, from which the book gains its nickname, "Devil's Bible". (From Atlas Obscura) |
While the legend is obviously just that: a legend, it is the kind of dark story that tends to catch my interest.
Not a whole lot is known about the Codex Gigas, or the Devil's Bible, though that picture of the Devil has been captivating people since it's creation around 700 years ago.
The Codex Gigas is named after its gigantic size, being the largest illuminated Medieval manuscript in the world. Created in the 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlazice in Bohemia, modern day Czech Republic. The book itself contains the Vulgate Bible (a 4th century Latin translation of the Bible), as well as numerous other works, and all of them in Latin, such as the Old and new Testaments, and a selection of other popular medical reference works: Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews and De bello iudaico, Isadore of Seville's encyclopedia Etymologiae, the chronicle of Cosmas of Prague, and medical works, including an early version of the Arc medicine compilation of treatises, and two books by Constantine the African. (Wikipedia)
According to Wikipedia, the dimensions of the book are as follows, "At 92 cm (36 in) long, 50 cm (20 in) wide, and 22 cm (8.7 in) thick, it is the largest known medieval manuscript. Weighing 74.8 kg (165 lb), Codex Gigas is composed of 310 leaves of vellum claimed to be made from the skins of 160 donkeys, or perhaps calfskin, covering 142.6cm sq (1535 sq ft) in total." Fifty-seven illuminated capital letters in numerous colors still survive, as well as many illustrations. The book originally contained 320 sheets, but twelve of these have been removed, though it is unknown by who, or when. It is believed these pages contained the Rule of St Benedict.
It was long thought that the book was completed in a hurry and by one individual, due to the uniform writing, and the unchanged nature of it. However, scholars have recently began studying the book, and are exploring the possibility that it could have taken up to twenty years to complete. The book is so large, so detailed, the curators at the National Gallery of Sweden, where the book is currently held, put the magnitude of the labor required into perspective as follows:
"If the scribe worked for six hours a day and worth six days a week this means that the manuscript could have taken about five years to complete. If the scribe was a monk, he may only have been able to work for about three hours a day, and this means that the manuscript could have taken ten years to write. As the scribe may also have ruled the lines to guide the writing before he began to write (it probably took several hours to rule one leaf), this extends the period it took to complete the manuscript. The scribe also decorated the manuscript, so this all means that the manuscript probably took at least 20 years to finish, and could have even taken 30." (Atlas Obscura)
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| Image of the Devil in the Codex Gigas, Wikipedia |
The image of the Devil, where the book gets its name, is a full page, and set opposite an image of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Currently the book is kept in Sweden in a dimly-lit room in a carefully controlled environment. Originally, the book was kept in Prague, however in the dying days of the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes looted Prague for a variety of items, namely valuable books, as Atlas Obscura puts it, "Queen Christina of Sweden had a habit of stealing books from other nations as 'war booty' and using them to enhance her own country's libraries."
Further, the Atlas Obscura article says, "After being snatched fro Prague and shipped back to Sweden, the Codex Gigas was kept at the royal castle in Stockholm. When fire tore through the castle in 1697, the Codex Gigas was thrown out a window to prevent it from being engulfed in flames. Though damaged by the four-story drop, it survived. 'One person standing beneath the window is said to have been injured in the process,' says the National Library of Sweden, evoking an amazing image that is swiftly dashed by the next sentence: 'This is probably just a tall tale, but the volume was greatly damaged.'"
And while that is fine and good, I felt like there needed to be a bit of something more to a post about the Devil's Bible, so I decided to do a little side trip down the macabre art of binding books in human skin.
Anthropodermic Bibliopegy and Doctor John Stockton
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| Book bound in human skin, wikipedia |
So, this isn't really something new, but it became a rather big deal in the 19th century specifically. Binding books in human skin is known as anthropodermic bibliopegy. Currently one of the most infamously surviving examples of this method of book binding is located in Bristol, UK and was made from the skin of the first man hanged at the Bristol Gaol, an 18 year old young man named John Horwood who was hanged for the murder of Eliza Balsum.
"Following his trial and execution, Horwood's coroopse was dissected by surgeon Richard Smith during a public lecture at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Smith then decided to have part of Horwood's skin tanned to bind a collection of papers about the case. The cover of the book was embossed with a skull and crossbones, with the words 'Cutis Vera Johannis Horwood', meaning 'the actual skin of John Harwood', added in gilt letters." (BBC)
One of the most famous book bound in human skin is titled The Highwayman: Narrative of the Lie of James Allen alias George Walton, written by James Allen. It was his deathbed confession in 1837. He asked for a copy to be bound in his own skin and presented to a man he'd tried to rob and admired for his bravery, and another to his doctor. Once he died, a piece of his back was taken to the tannery to be utilized for the book. (Wikipedia)
Acording to Wikipedia, "As of may 2019, The Anthropodermic Book Project has examined 31 out of 50 books in public institutions supposed to have anthropodermic bindings, of which 18 have been confirmed as human and 13 have been demonstrated to be animal leather instead."
In the 19th century, it was a known practice to use the skin of convicted criminals to bind books about their crimes in England. I also saw a number of books rumored to be bound in the skin of mental patients while researching this. It was not unheard of for doctors to use the skin of their patients to bind books written to immortalize their patients. One such infamous case was of Doctor John Stockton, who used skin from the thigh of one Mary Lynch, who was treated for tuberculosis (later it was discovered she had parasitic ringworm as well) for several months before she died at the age of 28. Doctor John Stockton, just 23 at the time, performed the autopsy on Mary Lynch shorty after her death.
No one knows why he chose Mary's skin, or if she gave her permission (probably not), or even what he planned to do with the skin when he first took it. However, Stockton tanned her skin in a chamber pot for several months, and then didn't bind his books with it until some twenty years later. All three books focus on female reproductive health (His first wife died in childbirth, so that might be why). The books are currently kept at the Philadelphia College of Physicians in a carefully controlled environment. Each book has a handwritten note from Doctor Stockton detailing the book is bound in human skin from a patient named Mary L.
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| Note by John Stockton, from Buzzfeed |
Further Reading
Object of Intrigue: The Devil's Bible
Codex Gigas (The Devil's Bible)
How Codex Gigas Became The Devil's Bible
10 Things You Should Know About the Devil's Bible
The macabre world of books bound in human skin
Seeking the Truth Behind Books Bound in Human Skin
The Strange Case of the Woman Whose Skin was Turned Into a Book
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