Today I will take you to the Sweden Library, where one of the most mysterious books from the Middle ages is exhibited. I’m talking about Devil’s book, the only religious book where is depicted a big Devil.
The book was written around the 13 century, supposedly by a monk from a Bohemian monastery. The monk was punished for breaking his vows to be walled up alive in the monastery’s walls. His only chance to avoid this was to write a book with all the things he knew about life. He had to write it in one night. It is supposed that this monk to do it made a pact with the Devil giving his soul in exchange for writing the book.
The book is really a big book with 310 pages, parchment is 89x49cm, weighs 74,8 kg, and was made out of 160 skins, most probably donkeys skins. The codex is bound in a wooden folded with leather and ornate with metal. Some pages from the codex are missing. Nobody knows who removed them.

The legend says that the book was written by Herman the Recluse in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice near Chrudim, in the Czech Republic. Tho monastery was destroyed around the 15 century during the Hussite Revolution. The codex was pledged to the Cistercian Sedlec Monastery and was bought by the Benedictine Monastery in Brevnov. From 1477 to 1593, the codex was kept in the library of the Brevnov monastery. In 1594 the codex was taken to Prague to form a part of Emperor Rudolf 2 collection.

In 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years War, the entire collection of the Emperor was taken as war booty by the Swedish army. Here you can see some pics and also the text https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3042/ 

Here you can see a video that I found on internet:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK_fX4_FkG0.

I hope you enjoyed it!

 

 

Pictures are gathered from the internet.

Pictures are gather from the internet.