About The Codex Gigas

About The Codex Gigas

The Codex Gigas contains five long texts as well as a complete Bible. The manuscript begins with the Old Testament, and it is followed by two historical works by Flavius Josephus who lived in the first century AD. These are The Antiquities and The Jewish War.

After Josephus is the most popular Encyclopaedia of the middle ages, by Isidore, who lived in the sixth century in Spain. This is followed by a collection of medical works, and these are followed by the New Testament.

The last of the long works is a Chronicle of Bohemia by Cosmas from Prague (ca 1045-1125). This is the first history of Bohemia and important work.

There are also some short texts in the manuscript. The first, before the picture of the Heavenly City, is a work on penitence. The second, after the Devil portrait, is on exorcising evil spirits. The last important short work is a Calendar, containing a list of saints and local Bohemian persons on the days on which they were commemorated. There is also one lost work, on leaves that have been cut out of the manuscript, the Rule of St Benedict, the essential guide to monastic life written in the sixth century.

The most important book of Christianity is the Bible. The other texts in the Codex Gigas were carefully chosen to accompany it because together they provided information about Jewish history (Josephus), universal knowledge (Isidore), medicine, and local history (Cosmas).



refer to this link for more information : http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/Browse-the-Manuscript/

Conjurations

A conjuration is a religious or magic formula presumed capable of preventing or overcoming evil, misfortune and disease. The conjuration is considered to give the person pronouncing it power and dominion over spirits, evil beasts and suchlike and to afford protection from witchcraft. In medieval times conjurations were used in many different connections, both within the Church and outside it.

-Exorcisms
-Medical practice
-Form of conjuration
-Conjurations in Codex Gigas


Exorcisms
Exorcism is the expulsion of the power of evil from human beings and objects. Exorcisms were practised on many occasions in the medieval Church, e.g. as a part of baptism and as the first stage in many benedictions. ‘Solemn exorcism’ was used for expelling evil from persons possessed by demons. Exorcism was never of a private nature but was always performed exclusively by authority of the Church.


Medical practice
Conjurations were much used in medieval medical practice. Usually this meant banishing the evil and demonic forces believed to cause illness. Conjurations were above all used against acute illnesses such as infections of the blood, festering wounds, toothache and earache, malaria and its accompanying spasms, and sudden states of illness, especially epileptic fits.


Form of conjuration
Conjurations usually included a few set phrases: an opening phrase on the lines of ‘I conjure’, an address to the subject of the conjuration, an invocation of a sacred power capable of combating the evil, and a command to the evil to obey and to comply with one’s wishes. The concluding command could be repeated several times. Conjurations could be reinforced by the invocation of persons, things and events considered sacred and, therefore, potent, such as the cross and blood of Christ or the Holy Sepulchre, the Passion story or the Last Judgement. Biblical events and occurrences in Christian legends were considered a source of power by virtue of their holiness. The conjuration could also be reinforced by accompanying acts, such as making the sign of the Cross, laying on hands or expulsion of air, to underly its imperative and binding nature.



Conjurations in Codex Gigas
In Codex Gigas, the spread showing the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Devil is followed by three conjurations and two magic spells (ff. 290v-291r). Possibly these are intended as protection from, and a counterpoint to, the picture of the Devil on the preceding page. The text is written in large characters on a coloured background, just like the confession of sins preceding the pictorial spread.

The first conjuration is against sudden illnesses, and in it evil is addressed in the magic words puton, purpuron, diranx, celmagis, metton, ardon, lardon, asson and catulon, with accompanying signs of the Cross. The next two conjurations are against feverish states. One of them apostrophises the seven evil sisters of Satan. They are to be expelled from a ‘servant of God’ through the invocation of various events in the life of Christ, as well as angels, the Holy Virgin, John the Baptist, the Evangelists, the Apostles, the prophets and various saints.

In the second formula the evil one, bloodthirsty Dino, who has 150 talons, is adjured and commanded not to harm his victim but to ‘sleep like a yearling lamb’. Two of the magic spells concern theft. This type is known from both Jewish and Christian magic. One prescribes how to catch a thief with the aid of a medium – ‘a virgin unblemished youth’. His nails are to be anointed with thirteen drops of oil and he will then espy the thief in the glistening oil. The other informs us that, in order to see in a dream ‘the theft which has happened’, one must hold a letter in one’s left hand, invoke God by His holy name, as well as the archangels, and conjure the evil spirits to go home and sleep.

Kitab Iblis

From my own post at Sabah Forum :

Codex gigas atau buku raksasa adalah sebuah manuskrip abad pertengahan dengan ukuran terbesar yang masih ada. Buku ini ditulis pada awal abad ke-13 di biara ordo benediktus di podlazice di Bohemia. Saat ini buku tersebut tersimpan di Swedish Royal Library di Stockholm. Dibutuhkan tenaga dua pustakawan untuk mengangkat buku tersebut. Buku ini sering juga disebut “alkitab iblis” karena adanya sebuah ilustrasi ukuran besar bergambar setan didalamnya.



Kodeks tersebut ditaruh disebuah tempat yang terbuat dari kayu, dilapisi dengan kulit dan dihias dengan logam. Tingginya 92 cm, lebarnya 50 cm dan memiliki tebal 22 cm. Pada mulanya, kodeks itu memiliki 320 lembar naskah. Namun 8 lembar darinya dibuang. Tidak diketahui siapa yang membuang 8 lembar tersebut dan untuk tujuan apa. Ada dugaan 8 lembar yang dibuang kemungkinan berisi aturan-aturan biara ordo benediktus. Berat kodeks tersebut hampir mencapai 75 kg. Lembaran yang digunakan untuk menulis kodeks ini adalah kulit yang berasal dari 160 ekor anak sapi.


Biara tempat kodeks ini dibuat dihancurkan pada abad ke-15. Catatan yang ada pada kodeks menunjukkan bahwa pembuatan kodeks tersebut adalah sekitar tahun 1229 M. Setelah penulisannya, kodeks ini kemudian dipindahkan ke Biara Cistercians Sedlec dan akhirnya dibeli oleh Biara benediktus di Byoevnov. Dari tahun 1477-1593, kodeks ini disimpan di perpustakaan di Broumov sampai akhirnya dibawa ke Praha pada tahun 1594 untuk menjadi bagian dari koleksi Rudolf II. Pada tanggal 24 September 2007, Codex gigas dibawa kembali ke Praha setelah 359 tahun.


Isi dari kodeks ini adalah “a sum of the Benedictine order’s knowledge”, “The War of the jews” tulisan Josephus, daftar para orang kudus, metode untuk menentukan tanggal perayaan paskah, seluruh alkitab bahasa latin pre-vulgate, Isidore of Seville’s encyclopedia Etymologiae, Cosmas of Prague’s Chronicle of Bohemia, berbagai macam traktat (dari sejarah, etimologi danfisiologi), sebuah kalender dengan nekrologium, daftar nama para biarawan di biara Podlaice, formula-formula ajaib dan catatan-catatan lain.



Seluruh isi kodeks ini ditulis dalam bahasa latin. Manuskrip ini juga dihiasi dengan warna-warna seperti merah, biru, kuning, hijau dan emas. Seluruh huruf besar diberi warna yang mencolok. Yang luar biasa adalah keseluruhan isi kodeks ini ditulis dengan relevansi yang luar biasa antar halaman. Yang berarti bahwa buku ini ditulis oleh satu orang dengan pikiran yang berkesinambungan. Hal ini membuat banyak ahli percaya bahwa keseluruhan kodeks ini ditulis dalam waktu yang sangat singkat.


Pada halaman 290, terdapat sebuah gambar Iblis dengan tinggi sekitar 50 cm. Beberapa halaman sebelum gambar ini ditulis pada lembaran kulit yang menghitam dan dibuat dengan karakter yang gelap, yang membuatnya berbeda dengan keseluruhan isi kodeks.





Menurut Legenda, penulis kodeks itu adalah seorang biarawan yang melanggar aturan biara dan dihukum dengan diikat di dinding dalam posisi berdiri seumur hidup. Biarawan ini memohon ampunan dari penghukuman yang luar biasa kejam itu. Sebagai gantinya ia berjanji untuk membuat sebuah buku yang akan memuliakan biara dan pengetahuan umat manusia selamanya, dan ia berjanji menyelesaikannya hanya dalam satu malam. Menjelang tengah malam, biarawan itu menjadi ragu apakah ia dapat menyelesaikannya sendiri. Jadi ia menjual jiwanya kepada iblis demi sebuah pertolongan. Iblis kemudian menyelesaikan manuskrip tersebut. Sebagai penghormatan kepada iblis yang membantunya, biarawan itu menambahkan gambar iblis ke dalam kodeks tersebut. Walaupun adanya legenda yangmelibatkan iblis, pada zaman inkuisisi, kodeks ini tetap disimpan oleh biara dan dipelajari oleh banyak cendikiawan sampai hari ini