WEBVTT - Codex Gigas 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.160 Welcome to steph you missed in History Class from hot 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.440 works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.840 Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and hey Tracy. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.400 We have not done a historical manuscript episode in a while. 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.360 I know we haven't, uh. And the Voyage Manuscript episode 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.159 that we did was very, very popular, but part of 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.440 that is because it is mysterious and people are constantly 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.200 trying to decode and crack it. The one that we're 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.360 talking about today comes with a little bit of mystery, 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.400 but I would say less than the Voyage Manuscript. But 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.199 unlike the Voyage Manuscript, we do know what this one says. Uh. 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.320 And this episode is actually one that I started a 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.400 while back, and then I just got derailed and wanted 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.000 to work on something else for the podcast instead, and 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:49.880 so I put it in a file that's like things 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.559 that I have started but not finished, and then recently 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.200 our listener Chatelaine wrote in to suggest it, so I 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:56.640 felt like it was time to dig it out of 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.400 cold storage and give it another look. So we're going 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.680 to talk about uh, what's called the Codex Gigas, and 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.399 you'll hear different pronunciations Tracy and I kind of combed 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.680 the the internet looking for various pronunciations to find the 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.360 right one, and we got so many different ones that 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.040 it actually became downright comical, as we would sit here 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:15.800 and go, no, look, this dude says it this way. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.559 So we're just gonna go with gigas. We'll leave it there. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.480 So the name, uh codex g Gas gives do him 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.679 about one of the notable features of this book. It 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:29.640 means giant book, because this thing is truly enormous. Yeah, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.560 it is eighty nine by forty nine centimeters. Uh so 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.560 for an alternate measurement, that's about thirty five by nineteen inches, 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:41.320 so about a yard long. It contains three parchment leaves 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.280 which may be calf skin, plus two paper and leaves. Uh. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.320 It's sent to weigh about as much as an average human. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.920 I've seen numbers like one eight so somewhere in there. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.440 The pages are arranged in two columns. There are a 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.240 hundred and six lines in each column. There are numbers 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.120 on the page, but the probably were added later. On 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.560 the same hand that wrote out the foliation also included 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.520 the date of fifteen sixty one, which is way after 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.600 the book was written, and the codex is bound in 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.519 leather covered wood. The manuscript was rebound in eight nineteen, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.079 and we'll talk about that a little bit later, but 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.239 based on the notes at the time, the current wooden 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.720 boards that are used in its binding are the originals. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.400 Notations around that rebinding suggests that the cover board had 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.080 a split down the center which had to be repaired, 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.120 and that may have been the impetus to have it 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.200 rebound at that point. There are also metal pieces at 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.240 the corners of the cover and some of these appear 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:43.519 to be replacements of earlier adornments. And there are several 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.440 long sections of text in the Codex Gigus. The first 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.800 is the Old Testament, The next is the Antiquities, written 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.640 by Flavius Josephus of the first century. The third text, 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.519 which is also by Flavius Josephus, is the Jewish War. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.359 Next is an Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, which was 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.880 written by Saint Isidore of Sevilla of Spain in the 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.880 sixth century, and after the encyclopedia is a section on 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:14.000 medical information, and then there is the New Testament. The 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.680 texts of the Old and New Testaments are what's known 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.440 as the Vulgate version, with two notable exceptions. The acts 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.720 of the apostles in the Book of Revelation are both 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.639 from an earlier biblical translation, the Vetis Latina. And the 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.600 last long section of the book is the Chronicle of Bohemia, 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.200 which is the first history of Bohemia that we have 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.760 on record, and this was written by Cosmas of Prague, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.560 who lived from ten forty five to eleven twenty five approximately. 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.960 Because this is the first Bohemian history, it's a really 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.240 significant work. In addition to all of that other stuff, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.400 there are several short pieces in the book as well. 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:54.080 One is written on penitence, one on exercising demons, and 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.800 there's a calendar that lists saints and famed Bohemians commemorated 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.960 on various Saints days. There was also at some point 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.200 a guide to monastic life in this big tone, called 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.560 the Rule of St. Benedict, but this portion has been removed. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.800 The leaves have actually been cut out of the codex. 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:17.360 It's normal for medieval manuscripts to have illustrations all through, 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.200 and this is also two of the codex. One is 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.600 a simple portrait of the writer Josephus. There are also 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.880 pictures of Heaven and Earth contained within circular frames. At 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.840 the beginning of the Book of Genesis. There are fifty 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.760 seven initial letters in the text of the Codex that 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.880 are colorful and feature these vines spindling off of them, 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.320 and they appear at the beginning of each book of 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.640 the Bible, and also at the start of the Chronicle 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.000 of Bohemia, which was written, as we said, by Cosmos. 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.720 And this is important to note because it indicates the 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.800 pride and importance placed on this history of Bohemia. The 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.239 vines that are stylistically consistent throughout the illustrated letters appear 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.000 to be a canthus, and they are depicted as growing 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.359 in spirals round and in and out from the letters themselves. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.160 On some of the letters, there are tiny animals, such 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.320 as birds that can be seen tucked in around the vines. 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.960 They're pretty these are pretty charming. The eye that opens 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.320 the Book of Esther features a squirrel on top of 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.040 it and it's eating a nut. It's so cute. I 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.680 almost feel slightly guilty referring to this, you know, important 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.719 medieval tome by going it's so cute. But the squirrels 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.280 very cute. The animals are darling. Yeah, there are a 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.719 lot of like medieval illuminations that that lend to themselves 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.520 to either cute or comical interpretations. There's some great blog 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:41.719 posts and tumblers and things floating around about various little charming, cute, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:48.960 adorable segments of greater medieval illuminations. Yeah, all of these 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:54.440 little details are just they're super charming. Uh. One of 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.520 only two full page pictures in the book is a 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.679 depiction of Heavenly Jerusalem, and this features two tall towers 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.240 on either side of the page and a foundation wall 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.440 at their bases which appears to be made of stone, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.760 And there are multiple smaller structures that are stacked in 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.920 this stylistic way to represent a dense city. And opposite 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.520 this illustration is what's perhaps become the most famous attribute 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.279 of the Codex Gigus, other than its massive size, which 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.400 is an illustration of the Devil. The portrait of the 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.240 devil is framed in exactly the same manner as the 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.080 image of Heavenly Jerusalem. Similar towers to the ones in 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.880 the Jerusalem painting are featured on either side of this 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.120 full body painting of the Devil. The devil is depicted 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.920 in what looks like a jumping position with his bent 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.719 legs tucked up partially underneath him. He has a greenish 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.640 blue face and spectacular red and yellow talents coming out 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.720 from his fingers and toes. And this image of the 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.200 devil is so eye catching that it has actually earned 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.960 the book the nickname the Devil's Bible. And as you 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.920 may suspect that this moniker has led to some sensation 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.640 analism around it. Yeah, when we were when we were 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.800 doing our looking into how to say the name, I 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:09.159 saw possibly the most sensationalized historical TV special I've ever seen, 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.160 and I'm not even gonna say what network it was from. 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.640 There have been a few, so it's not there's not 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.800 one one guilty party on that one. The vast majority 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.240 of the codex was written in a medieval script called 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.840 the Carolingian minuscule. The style came into being in the 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.240 ninth century, and it was popular through the twelfth century. 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.760 Then it kind of fell out of favor until it 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.720 was revived in the fifteenth century. And one of the 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.640 more fascinating aspects of this book is that researchers who 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.480 have studied it for many, many years have come to 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.760 the conclusion that one single scribe wrote an embellished the 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.480 entire book. And it appears that the person who wrote 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.040 out this text was very well trained, but had developed 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.680 a pretty unique style that makes the work distinctive. Uh. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.000 And some of the pieces that I read, they've said, like, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.440 we would know if we saw this work, this person's 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.120 work anywhere else. However, this is the only manuscript that's 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.480 known to have been the work of this person. This 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.360 this is pretty mysterious. Really, we have no evidence at 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.560 all of the works on which this scribe would have trained. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.760 It's estimated that a medieval scribe would average roughly a 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.280 hundred lines a day, and so, factoring in the careful 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.560 ruling on each text page and the text itself, the 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.880 decoration pieces, all of that, it's um it's estimated that 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.600 this work would have taken between ten and twenty years 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.760 to complete. At an absolute minimum. Longer estimates suggests that 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.079 it could have been the work of a lifetime. Yeah, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.360 you'll see different sort of breakdowns of how people estimate 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.920 how this would go. And they'll say, like you'll see 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.040 five years sometimes, but usually that is qualified as just 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.760 to write the text out. That doesn't include the marking 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.079 the pages with the ruling first and doing all the 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.679 other things and kind of designing it and pre planning 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:02.240 how it was all going to be laid out, because 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.360 this isn't haphazard at all. It really is a very 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.880 well designed and laid out book. Uh. The five years 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:09.720 is usually just for the writing, and then they add 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.920 in all the illustrations, and that's how they usually get. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.760 Somewhere between ten and twenty years is the minimum amount. 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.559 Because of this single scribe fact and the nickname of 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.559 the Devil's Bible. As I said, there have been some 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.360 interesting theories around the codex and its creation, and there 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.280 have been some variations. One of the most popular involves 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.599 the idea that a monk sold his soul to the 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.200 devil to gain the time needed to complete the work. 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.480 But that's kind of a newer variation. Uh. One version 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.000 of that theme hints at a disgraced monk that's locked 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.679 away to do the work as a sort of penance. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:45.679 Like he says he will do it in one night, 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.400 and according to this legend, he did so in a 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.960 single night, but he required the assistance of the devil 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.400 himself to do it. Uh, And so he kind of 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.199 made a deal with the devil that way. So that 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.280 he could achieve this ridiculously lofty goal he had set 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.800 and claimed he would achieve. That version actually traces all 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:04.760 the way back to medieval times. That's not a modern 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.000 invention around this book. That story has been going on 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.560 for hundreds of years, so very early in the book's life, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.000 it had some crazy, uh drama attached to it. Yeah. Well, 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.240 it's it's a little odd to me that there is 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.000 this this drama because there were like some really ourd 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:27.079 expressions of religious piety in the in the medieval period, 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.240 like this is when there would be people who literally 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.599 walled themselves up into a tiny, tiny cloister in the 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.839 walls of a church. And so spending ten to twenty 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.920 years minimum of your life in a pious writing of 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.120 of a text does not strike me as that odd 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.640 in that context. So it's funny to me that there 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.360 are so many descriptions of what might have what might 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.000 have happened. Yeah, And I think a lot of that 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.920 kind of just comes from the the portrait of the 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.559 devil and sort of the largeness. I think it was 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.199 just sort of a really unique book from the get go, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.360 and so people naturally kind of built up stories around it. Yeah, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.000 One of these weird stories is that the manuscript is 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.240 written on the hide of a hundred and sixty donkeys, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.319 and that they're Satanic images throughout. But this, similar to 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.760 the one about selling yourself to the devil, also pretty sensationalized. Yeah, 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:26.240 there are Again I didn't use it as one of 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.559 my sources. I watched a little bit of another kind 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.120 of very sensational documentary where they were saying, never in 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.040 any other Bible have there been images of demons and 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.079 talk of this sort of exorcism. And I'm like, it's 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.719 all one big religious Texas sort of you know, the 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.480 sort of exorcism stuff does not seem out of place 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.959 when you considered what this was, So it's kind of 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.280 you know, again, those are sensationalized. But before we get 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.920 to our next section, which is going to talk about 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:58.959 sort of the journey that this codex has been on 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.520 throughout its eight hundred year or so life, Uh, do 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.360 you want to pause for a word from a sponsor. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.640 Let's do that alrighty. 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So, first is the appearance 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:38.120 of the Bohemian st Procopius, and Procopius appears on the 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.400 calendar segment of the text, and he wasn't canonized until 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.200 twelve oh four, so we know that's the earliest possible 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.760 date that this could have been started. On the other 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.880 end of the timeline is the death of Bishop Andreas 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.080 of Prague, and that's mentioned in the codex as well, 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.520 and UH he died in twelve three. The death of 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.600 Bohemian king Ottakar the first is not listed. He died 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.040 in twelve thirty. So it's believed that the manuscript was 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:11.240 finished sometime between those two notable deaths, and the Codex 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.800 was written in Bohemia, as evidenced by the fact that 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.560 the Chronicle of Bohemian and the History of It uh 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.560 and the calendar's listing of notable check figures. So those 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.640 are the clues that that was the origin point. We've 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.160 had some episodes about books that were really notable, but 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.280 they sat kind of in an unknown, unappreciated corner for 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.360 a long time until someone happened upon them. Not the 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.560 case with this one. Almost from the beginning of its life, 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.920 the Codex Gigas was recognized as a marvel and it 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:45.960 represented the knowledge of the Benedictine order in Bohemia. There 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.960 is a note in the codex which indicates that the 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.840 book was first kept in the Bohemian Benedictine monastery at Polos, 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.240 which I am probably butchering and I apologize. Uh. This 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.840 has led us some conclusions that the book must have 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.680 been written there, but if it was, would have been 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.960 even more of a marvel, really, because there is no 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.880 evidence that that monastery ever produced another medieval manuscript, so 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:08.880 it would have been this random outlier that kind of 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.520 appeared out of nowhere. One monk who's often named as 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.240 the likely scribe for this book is the is Herman, 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.880 the Recluse. Another is Soba Slause, which is written in 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.000 one of the book's margins as part of a prayer 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.240 to the Virgin Mary. But the writing of that note 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.000 differs a lot. It's pretty significant from the rest of 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:33.160 the manuscript, so probably someone added that later, regardless of 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.280 who wrote it and whether or not it originated at 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:41.120 that particular monastery, in need of funds that Benedicting monastery 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.240 pond it to the Cistercian monastery at Setlitz in twelve nine, 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:51.280 another Benedicting monastery at Brevnov to possession of the codex 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.920 via the work of an app An abbot named Beavor 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.320 working on behalf of Bishop Gregory of Prague. There's actually 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.320 some confus usual on this point, because Gregory did not 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.159 become Bishop of Prague until the following year, but was 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:11.640 clearly named in that position with the twelve ninety date. Yeah, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.600 there have been theories about why that could have been 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.200 the case, and some just chalk it up to, oh, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.360 I'm sure whoever wrote that note just got the year wrong, 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.440 but we don't really know. What we do know is 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.480 a while later, in fourteen twenty, the monks at Brevnov 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.399 had to evacuate their monastery when the Hussite War began 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.399 and they went to Brumov, and apparently they took the 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.040 book with them, And our evidence that we know that 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.480 the book traveled there with them, uh comes in the 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:39.440 form of a letter written by a Mr. Johannes Froneberg, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.280 who saw the book while he was visiting Brumov in 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.639 fourteen seventy seven. And described it in a letter to 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:47.399 someone else, so we know it was there. At that 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.360 point in the fifteen hundreds, that became customary for visitors 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.560 to the Brumov Monastery to enter their names into the codex, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.720 so it turned into kind of a guest book and 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.960 historical record. For example, we know that Ferdinand the first 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.560 King of Bohemia stayed at the monastery when traveling to 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:09.399 Prague because his visit was recorded in the codex. And 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.879 Rudolph the second Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.280 who we did an entire episode on a while back, 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.639 took a great interest in the codex. He was so 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.400 fascinated by the book that he actually wanted to take 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.760 it with him to Prague, and eventually a deal was 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.920 struck with Abbott Martin of the Brevnov Monks and with 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.680 the prior of Brumov Monastery overseeing things. The book was 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.560 handed over to Rudolph the Second as a loan. The 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.800 massive volume headed the Prague on March fourth, and it 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:46.120 reached the Royal royal household there sometimes shortly after March six. 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.880 Along the way, starts and stops were noted and people 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:54.560 signed it as it passed through their towns. Rudolph the 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.880 Second secretary and other acquaintances studied the manuscript with great interest. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.680 You may recall from our episode on Rudolph the Second 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.280 that he was into the occult, so anything with even 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:09.080 a minor whiff of supernatural intrigue was hugely exciting to him. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.199 In the end, Rudolph the Second was a little bit 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:16.400 of a weasel in this lone deal. He never returned 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.800 the book to the monks. Instead, he had it cataloged 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.879 as one of his many treasures, and the entry that 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.560 details it as part of Rudolph the Seconds collection includes 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.920 this mention of the devil having worked on it, so 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.760 that sort of further this rumor about its origin points 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.760 uh and before we get to sort of where it 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.080 ends up and stays for quite some time. Do you 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.879 want to have another word from a sponsor? Yes? I do. So. 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.240 You know that wonderful thing about living in the digital age, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.359 or sometimes you can get stuff done really quickly just 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.800 clicking around with your mouth and typing. Now you can 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:50.879 do that with your mailing and chipping. 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So, uh, 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.399 where we left off, Roodolf the second had kind of 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.560 decided that the Codex Gigus was his and he had 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.080 it entered into his election catalog. And near the end 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.040 of the Thirty Years War, which took place between the 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.680 Protestants and the Catholics. We talked about that in some 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:11.280 other episodes as well. Prague was invaded by Swedish forces 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.600 on July sixteenth, sixteen forty eight, and the treasures of 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.920 Prague were looted, and that included the Codex Gigas. Rudolph 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.560 the Second was no longer in power at that point, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.720 but his huge collection was still part of, you know, 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:29.119 sort of Prague's treasures. Swedish forces moved really quickly to 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.560 inventory and pack up all the items they had taken, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.199 because anything that hadn't been carted away by the end 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:35.960 of the war was going to have to be returned 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.480 to its rightful home so quick. Christina of Sweden, who 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.320 we've had a previous episode on, had her men ship 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.440 all the goods they could to the Baltic coast. Yes, 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:47.720