Codex Gigas
Posted on | October 15, 2008 |
The National Library of Sweden has a remarkable online resource for study of Codex Gigas – a full set of digitised images together with extensive description and bibliography.
In the bibliography, links are included for some items accessible online. These include a standard description of the codex by B. Dudík, OSB, in his Forschungen in Schweden für Mährens Geschichte, Brünn, Druck von Carl Winiker, 1852, pp. 207-235 (description of the codex, under c. Lateinische Handschriften), and 403-427 (the Necrologium Podlažicense), in pdf format. The codex is listed by Dudík as Cod. Ms. Memb. fol. maxim., dated to the thirteenth century and containing 309 leaves. (According to the Stockholm website there are 310 leaves.)
There is an article on ‘Codex Gigas’ in Wikipedia, and also an article giving a ‘List of Latin MSS of the NT’.
Having been taken from Prague Castle in 1648, the codex returned to Prague for an exhibition in the Klementinum Gallery, Prague National Library, in late 2007 – early 2008. A new study of the manuscript was produced for the occasion: K. Boldan et al., Codex Gigas – The Devil’s Bible: The Secrets of the World’s Largest Book, Prague, National Library of the Czech Republic, 2007.
Some videos showing Codex Gigas have been posted on YouTube. Confusingly, Codex Gigas is also the name of a modern music group.
While Codex Gigas is regarded as the largest European book, and the largest book from the medieval period, the largest book in the world is now generally considered to be the collection of photographs entitled Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom, published in 2003, which seems to be over twice the height and breadth of Codex Gigas, though it has fewer pages and weighs less. The current price for this on Amazon is $30,000. The website of the University Libraries of the University of Washington has an article on the Bhutan book, including a photo of it with pages open.
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