Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in History Class from hot
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and hey Tracy.
Speaker 1: We have not done a historical manuscript episode in a while.
Speaker 1: I know we haven't, uh. And the Voyage Manuscript episode
Speaker 1: that we did was very, very popular, but part of
Speaker 1: that is because it is mysterious and people are constantly
Speaker 1: trying to decode and crack it. The one that we're
Speaker 1: talking about today comes with a little bit of mystery,
Speaker 1: but I would say less than the Voyage Manuscript. But
Speaker 1: unlike the Voyage Manuscript, we do know what this one says. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this episode is actually one that I started a
Speaker 1: while back, and then I just got derailed and wanted
Speaker 1: to work on something else for the podcast instead, and
Speaker 1: so I put it in a file that's like things
Speaker 1: that I have started but not finished, and then recently
Speaker 1: our listener Chatelaine wrote in to suggest it, so I
Speaker 1: felt like it was time to dig it out of
Speaker 1: cold storage and give it another look. So we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about uh, what's called the Codex Gigas, and
Speaker 1: you'll hear different pronunciations Tracy and I kind of combed
Speaker 1: the the internet looking for various pronunciations to find the
Speaker 1: right one, and we got so many different ones that
Speaker 1: it actually became downright comical, as we would sit here
Speaker 1: and go, no, look, this dude says it this way.
Speaker 1: So we're just gonna go with gigas. We'll leave it there.
Speaker 1: So the name, uh codex g Gas gives do him
Speaker 1: about one of the notable features of this book. It
Speaker 1: means giant book, because this thing is truly enormous. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is eighty nine by forty nine centimeters. Uh so
Speaker 1: for an alternate measurement, that's about thirty five by nineteen inches,
Speaker 1: so about a yard long. It contains three parchment leaves
Speaker 1: which may be calf skin, plus two paper and leaves. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's sent to weigh about as much as an average human.
Speaker 1: I've seen numbers like one eight so somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: The pages are arranged in two columns. There are a
Speaker 1: hundred and six lines in each column. There are numbers
Speaker 1: on the page, but the probably were added later. On
Speaker 1: the same hand that wrote out the foliation also included
Speaker 1: the date of fifteen sixty one, which is way after
Speaker 1: the book was written, and the codex is bound in
Speaker 1: leather covered wood. The manuscript was rebound in eight nineteen,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that a little bit later, but
Speaker 1: based on the notes at the time, the current wooden
Speaker 1: boards that are used in its binding are the originals.
Speaker 1: Notations around that rebinding suggests that the cover board had
Speaker 1: a split down the center which had to be repaired,
Speaker 1: and that may have been the impetus to have it
Speaker 1: rebound at that point. There are also metal pieces at
Speaker 1: the corners of the cover and some of these appear
Speaker 1: to be replacements of earlier adornments. And there are several
Speaker 1: long sections of text in the Codex Gigus. The first
Speaker 1: is the Old Testament, The next is the Antiquities, written
Speaker 1: by Flavius Josephus of the first century. The third text,
Speaker 1: which is also by Flavius Josephus, is the Jewish War.
Speaker 1: Next is an Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, which was
Speaker 1: written by Saint Isidore of Sevilla of Spain in the
Speaker 1: sixth century, and after the encyclopedia is a section on
Speaker 1: medical information, and then there is the New Testament. The
Speaker 1: texts of the Old and New Testaments are what's known
Speaker 1: as the Vulgate version, with two notable exceptions. The acts
Speaker 1: of the apostles in the Book of Revelation are both
Speaker 1: from an earlier biblical translation, the Vetis Latina. And the
Speaker 1: last long section of the book is the Chronicle of Bohemia,
Speaker 1: which is the first history of Bohemia that we have
Speaker 1: on record, and this was written by Cosmas of Prague,
Speaker 1: who lived from ten forty five to eleven twenty five approximately.
Speaker 1: Because this is the first Bohemian history, it's a really
Speaker 1: significant work. In addition to all of that other stuff,
Speaker 1: there are several short pieces in the book as well.
Speaker 1: One is written on penitence, one on exercising demons, and
Speaker 1: there's a calendar that lists saints and famed Bohemians commemorated
Speaker 1: on various Saints days. There was also at some point
Speaker 1: a guide to monastic life in this big tone, called
Speaker 1: the Rule of St. Benedict, but this portion has been removed.
Speaker 1: The leaves have actually been cut out of the codex.
Speaker 1: It's normal for medieval manuscripts to have illustrations all through,
Speaker 1: and this is also two of the codex. One is
Speaker 1: a simple portrait of the writer Josephus. There are also
Speaker 1: pictures of Heaven and Earth contained within circular frames. At
Speaker 1: the beginning of the Book of Genesis. There are fifty
Speaker 1: seven initial letters in the text of the Codex that
Speaker 1: are colorful and feature these vines spindling off of them,
Speaker 1: and they appear at the beginning of each book of
Speaker 1: the Bible, and also at the start of the Chronicle
Speaker 1: of Bohemia, which was written, as we said, by Cosmos.
Speaker 1: And this is important to note because it indicates the
Speaker 1: pride and importance placed on this history of Bohemia. The
Speaker 1: vines that are stylistically consistent throughout the illustrated letters appear
Speaker 1: to be a canthus, and they are depicted as growing
Speaker 1: in spirals round and in and out from the letters themselves.
Speaker 1: On some of the letters, there are tiny animals, such
Speaker 1: as birds that can be seen tucked in around the vines.
Speaker 1: They're pretty these are pretty charming. The eye that opens
Speaker 1: the Book of Esther features a squirrel on top of
Speaker 1: it and it's eating a nut. It's so cute. I
Speaker 1: almost feel slightly guilty referring to this, you know, important
Speaker 1: medieval tome by going it's so cute. But the squirrels
Speaker 1: very cute. The animals are darling. Yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of like medieval illuminations that that lend to themselves
Speaker 1: to either cute or comical interpretations. There's some great blog
Speaker 1: posts and tumblers and things floating around about various little charming, cute,
Speaker 1: adorable segments of greater medieval illuminations. Yeah, all of these
Speaker 1: little details are just they're super charming. Uh. One of
Speaker 1: only two full page pictures in the book is a
Speaker 1: depiction of Heavenly Jerusalem, and this features two tall towers
Speaker 1: on either side of the page and a foundation wall
Speaker 1: at their bases which appears to be made of stone,
Speaker 1: And there are multiple smaller structures that are stacked in
Speaker 1: this stylistic way to represent a dense city. And opposite
Speaker 1: this illustration is what's perhaps become the most famous attribute
Speaker 1: of the Codex Gigus, other than its massive size, which
Speaker 1: is an illustration of the Devil. The portrait of the
Speaker 1: devil is framed in exactly the same manner as the
Speaker 1: image of Heavenly Jerusalem. Similar towers to the ones in
Speaker 1: the Jerusalem painting are featured on either side of this
Speaker 1: full body painting of the Devil. The devil is depicted
Speaker 1: in what looks like a jumping position with his bent
Speaker 1: legs tucked up partially underneath him. He has a greenish
Speaker 1: blue face and spectacular red and yellow talents coming out
Speaker 1: from his fingers and toes. And this image of the
Speaker 1: devil is so eye catching that it has actually earned
Speaker 1: the book the nickname the Devil's Bible. And as you
Speaker 1: may suspect that this moniker has led to some sensation
Speaker 1: analism around it. Yeah, when we were when we were
Speaker 1: doing our looking into how to say the name, I
Speaker 1: saw possibly the most sensationalized historical TV special I've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even gonna say what network it was from.
Speaker 1: There have been a few, so it's not there's not
Speaker 1: one one guilty party on that one. The vast majority
Speaker 1: of the codex was written in a medieval script called
Speaker 1: the Carolingian minuscule. The style came into being in the
Speaker 1: ninth century, and it was popular through the twelfth century.
Speaker 1: Then it kind of fell out of favor until it
Speaker 1: was revived in the fifteenth century. And one of the
Speaker 1: more fascinating aspects of this book is that researchers who
Speaker 1: have studied it for many, many years have come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that one single scribe wrote an embellished the
Speaker 1: entire book. And it appears that the person who wrote
Speaker 1: out this text was very well trained, but had developed
Speaker 1: a pretty unique style that makes the work distinctive. Uh.
Speaker 1: And some of the pieces that I read, they've said, like,
Speaker 1: we would know if we saw this work, this person's
Speaker 1: work anywhere else. However, this is the only manuscript that's
Speaker 1: known to have been the work of this person. This
Speaker 1: this is pretty mysterious. Really, we have no evidence at
Speaker 1: all of the works on which this scribe would have trained.
Speaker 1: It's estimated that a medieval scribe would average roughly a
Speaker 1: hundred lines a day, and so, factoring in the careful
Speaker 1: ruling on each text page and the text itself, the
Speaker 1: decoration pieces, all of that, it's um it's estimated that
Speaker 1: this work would have taken between ten and twenty years
Speaker 1: to complete. At an absolute minimum. Longer estimates suggests that
Speaker 1: it could have been the work of a lifetime. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll see different sort of breakdowns of how people estimate
Speaker 1: how this would go. And they'll say, like you'll see
Speaker 1: five years sometimes, but usually that is qualified as just
Speaker 1: to write the text out. That doesn't include the marking
Speaker 1: the pages with the ruling first and doing all the
Speaker 1: other things and kind of designing it and pre planning
Speaker 1: how it was all going to be laid out, because
Speaker 1: this isn't haphazard at all. It really is a very
Speaker 1: well designed and laid out book. Uh. The five years
Speaker 1: is usually just for the writing, and then they add
Speaker 1: in all the illustrations, and that's how they usually get.
Speaker 1: Somewhere between ten and twenty years is the minimum amount.
Speaker 1: Because of this single scribe fact and the nickname of
Speaker 1: the Devil's Bible. As I said, there have been some
Speaker 1: interesting theories around the codex and its creation, and there
Speaker 1: have been some variations. One of the most popular involves
Speaker 1: the idea that a monk sold his soul to the
Speaker 1: devil to gain the time needed to complete the work.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of a newer variation. Uh. One version
Speaker 1: of that theme hints at a disgraced monk that's locked
Speaker 1: away to do the work as a sort of penance.
Speaker 1: Like he says he will do it in one night,
Speaker 1: and according to this legend, he did so in a
Speaker 1: single night, but he required the assistance of the devil
Speaker 1: himself to do it. Uh, And so he kind of
Speaker 1: made a deal with the devil that way. So that
Speaker 1: he could achieve this ridiculously lofty goal he had set
Speaker 1: and claimed he would achieve. That version actually traces all
Speaker 1: the way back to medieval times. That's not a modern
Speaker 1: invention around this book. That story has been going on
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years, so very early in the book's life,
Speaker 1: it had some crazy, uh drama attached to it. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's a little odd to me that there is
Speaker 1: this this drama because there were like some really ourd
Speaker 1: expressions of religious piety in the in the medieval period,
Speaker 1: like this is when there would be people who literally
Speaker 1: walled themselves up into a tiny, tiny cloister in the
Speaker 1: walls of a church. And so spending ten to twenty
Speaker 1: years minimum of your life in a pious writing of
Speaker 1: of a text does not strike me as that odd
Speaker 1: in that context. So it's funny to me that there
Speaker 1: are so many descriptions of what might have what might
Speaker 1: have happened. Yeah, And I think a lot of that
Speaker 1: kind of just comes from the the portrait of the
Speaker 1: devil and sort of the largeness. I think it was
Speaker 1: just sort of a really unique book from the get go,
Speaker 1: and so people naturally kind of built up stories around it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: One of these weird stories is that the manuscript is
Speaker 1: written on the hide of a hundred and sixty donkeys,
Speaker 1: and that they're Satanic images throughout. But this, similar to
Speaker 1: the one about selling yourself to the devil, also pretty sensationalized. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are Again I didn't use it as one of
Speaker 1: my sources. I watched a little bit of another kind
Speaker 1: of very sensational documentary where they were saying, never in
Speaker 1: any other Bible have there been images of demons and
Speaker 1: talk of this sort of exorcism. And I'm like, it's
Speaker 1: all one big religious Texas sort of you know, the
Speaker 1: sort of exorcism stuff does not seem out of place
Speaker 1: when you considered what this was, So it's kind of
Speaker 1: you know, again, those are sensationalized. But before we get
Speaker 1: to our next section, which is going to talk about
Speaker 1: sort of the journey that this codex has been on
Speaker 1: throughout its eight hundred year or so life, Uh, do
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Speaker 1: com slash history. So uh to talk about sort of
Speaker 1: the history of where this book has been and where
Speaker 1: this manuscript has traveled. Uh. The Codex Gigus has been
Speaker 1: dated as likely being written between twelve o four and
Speaker 1: twelve thirty, And this dating range is based on a
Speaker 1: couple of pieces of information. So, first is the appearance
Speaker 1: of the Bohemian st Procopius, and Procopius appears on the
Speaker 1: calendar segment of the text, and he wasn't canonized until
Speaker 1: twelve oh four, so we know that's the earliest possible
Speaker 1: date that this could have been started. On the other
Speaker 1: end of the timeline is the death of Bishop Andreas
Speaker 1: of Prague, and that's mentioned in the codex as well,
Speaker 1: and UH he died in twelve three. The death of
Speaker 1: Bohemian king Ottakar the first is not listed. He died
Speaker 1: in twelve thirty. So it's believed that the manuscript was
Speaker 1: finished sometime between those two notable deaths, and the Codex
Speaker 1: was written in Bohemia, as evidenced by the fact that
Speaker 1: the Chronicle of Bohemian and the History of It uh
Speaker 1: and the calendar's listing of notable check figures. So those
Speaker 1: are the clues that that was the origin point. We've
Speaker 1: had some episodes about books that were really notable, but
Speaker 1: they sat kind of in an unknown, unappreciated corner for
Speaker 1: a long time until someone happened upon them. Not the
Speaker 1: case with this one. Almost from the beginning of its life,
Speaker 1: the Codex Gigas was recognized as a marvel and it
Speaker 1: represented the knowledge of the Benedictine order in Bohemia. There
Speaker 1: is a note in the codex which indicates that the
Speaker 1: book was first kept in the Bohemian Benedictine monastery at Polos,
Speaker 1: which I am probably butchering and I apologize. Uh. This
Speaker 1: has led us some conclusions that the book must have
Speaker 1: been written there, but if it was, would have been
Speaker 1: even more of a marvel, really, because there is no
Speaker 1: evidence that that monastery ever produced another medieval manuscript, so
Speaker 1: it would have been this random outlier that kind of
Speaker 1: appeared out of nowhere. One monk who's often named as
Speaker 1: the likely scribe for this book is the is Herman,
Speaker 1: the Recluse. Another is Soba Slause, which is written in
Speaker 1: one of the book's margins as part of a prayer
Speaker 1: to the Virgin Mary. But the writing of that note
Speaker 1: differs a lot. It's pretty significant from the rest of
Speaker 1: the manuscript, so probably someone added that later, regardless of
Speaker 1: who wrote it and whether or not it originated at
Speaker 1: that particular monastery, in need of funds that Benedicting monastery
Speaker 1: pond it to the Cistercian monastery at Setlitz in twelve nine,
Speaker 1: another Benedicting monastery at Brevnov to possession of the codex
Speaker 1: via the work of an app An abbot named Beavor
Speaker 1: working on behalf of Bishop Gregory of Prague. There's actually
Speaker 1: some confus usual on this point, because Gregory did not
Speaker 1: become Bishop of Prague until the following year, but was
Speaker 1: clearly named in that position with the twelve ninety date. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there have been theories about why that could have been
Speaker 1: the case, and some just chalk it up to, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sure whoever wrote that note just got the year wrong,
Speaker 1: but we don't really know. What we do know is
Speaker 1: a while later, in fourteen twenty, the monks at Brevnov
Speaker 1: had to evacuate their monastery when the Hussite War began
Speaker 1: and they went to Brumov, and apparently they took the
Speaker 1: book with them, And our evidence that we know that
Speaker 1: the book traveled there with them, uh comes in the
Speaker 1: form of a letter written by a Mr. Johannes Froneberg,
Speaker 1: who saw the book while he was visiting Brumov in
Speaker 1: fourteen seventy seven. And described it in a letter to
Speaker 1: someone else, so we know it was there. At that
Speaker 1: point in the fifteen hundreds, that became customary for visitors
Speaker 1: to the Brumov Monastery to enter their names into the codex,
Speaker 1: so it turned into kind of a guest book and
Speaker 1: historical record. For example, we know that Ferdinand the first
Speaker 1: King of Bohemia stayed at the monastery when traveling to
Speaker 1: Prague because his visit was recorded in the codex. And
Speaker 1: Rudolph the second Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia,
Speaker 1: who we did an entire episode on a while back,
Speaker 1: took a great interest in the codex. He was so
Speaker 1: fascinated by the book that he actually wanted to take
Speaker 1: it with him to Prague, and eventually a deal was
Speaker 1: struck with Abbott Martin of the Brevnov Monks and with
Speaker 1: the prior of Brumov Monastery overseeing things. The book was
Speaker 1: handed over to Rudolph the Second as a loan. The
Speaker 1: massive volume headed the Prague on March fourth, and it
Speaker 1: reached the Royal royal household there sometimes shortly after March six.
Speaker 1: Along the way, starts and stops were noted and people
Speaker 1: signed it as it passed through their towns. Rudolph the
Speaker 1: Second secretary and other acquaintances studied the manuscript with great interest.
Speaker 1: You may recall from our episode on Rudolph the Second
Speaker 1: that he was into the occult, so anything with even
Speaker 1: a minor whiff of supernatural intrigue was hugely exciting to him.
Speaker 1: In the end, Rudolph the Second was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a weasel in this lone deal. He never returned
Speaker 1: the book to the monks. Instead, he had it cataloged
Speaker 1: as one of his many treasures, and the entry that
Speaker 1: details it as part of Rudolph the Seconds collection includes
Speaker 1: this mention of the devil having worked on it, so
Speaker 1: that sort of further this rumor about its origin points
Speaker 1: uh and before we get to sort of where it
Speaker 1: ends up and stays for quite some time. Do you
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Speaker 1: where we left off, Roodolf the second had kind of
Speaker 1: decided that the Codex Gigus was his and he had
Speaker 1: it entered into his election catalog. And near the end
Speaker 1: of the Thirty Years War, which took place between the
Speaker 1: Protestants and the Catholics. We talked about that in some
Speaker 1: other episodes as well. Prague was invaded by Swedish forces
Speaker 1: on July sixteenth, sixteen forty eight, and the treasures of
Speaker 1: Prague were looted, and that included the Codex Gigas. Rudolph
Speaker 1: the Second was no longer in power at that point,
Speaker 1: but his huge collection was still part of, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of Prague's treasures. Swedish forces moved really quickly to
Speaker 1: inventory and pack up all the items they had taken,
Speaker 1: because anything that hadn't been carted away by the end
Speaker 1: of the war was going to have to be returned
Speaker 1: to its rightful home so quick. Christina of Sweden, who
Speaker 1: we've had a previous episode on, had her men ship
Speaker 1: all the goods they could to the Baltic coast. Yes,
Speaker 1: she just wanted them to get everything out of Prague
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible because she wanted to keep all
Speaker 1: those spoils. Uh and the Codex, along with many other items,
Speaker 1: spent the winter of sixteen sixteen forty nine in the
Speaker 1: fortress at Domits after the war ended in October of sixteen,
Speaker 1: and this, along with the rest of the booty, finally
Speaker 1: reached Stockholm in May of sixteen forty nine. When Christina's
Speaker 1: librarian cataloged the many books taken from Prague, the Kodex
Speaker 1: ky Gas was the first item on the list. But surprisingly,
Speaker 1: when Christina abdicated took many of her books with her,
Speaker 1: the codex was left behind and remained at the castle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't know why if it was just because it
Speaker 1: was large and unweeldy, although she would have had a
Speaker 1: huge you know, uh, presumably considering all of the other
Speaker 1: things she took with her, she would have had things
Speaker 1: that could carry something that size. But we don't know
Speaker 1: why she left it behind. She took a lot of
Speaker 1: art with her, so yes, uh. In six seven, the
Speaker 1: castle in Stockholm had a fire, which could have been
Speaker 1: disastrous and it could have wiped out the record of
Speaker 1: the Codex forever, except it was saved because somebody hucked
Speaker 1: it out a window to get it away from the fire.
Speaker 1: The manuscript and in some versions of the tale that
Speaker 1: are not substained jadd A person below. Uh, we're damaged
Speaker 1: by this desperate rescue effort. And after the fire, the
Speaker 1: manuscript was recataloged again and kept in the Royal Library,
Speaker 1: and the custom of visitors signing it continued. In seventeen,
Speaker 1: Joseph Debruski of Prague's Royal Society of Sciences visited Stockholm
Speaker 1: and he saw the codex. While researching possible items of
Speaker 1: check significance in Sweden, he published the first really detailed
Speaker 1: report on the manuscript. A comprehensive Swedish account of the
Speaker 1: manuscript was written in eighteen eleven by Lorenzo Hammers Gold.
Speaker 1: Throughout the years since these two works, many historians and
Speaker 1: theologians have studied and written about the manuscript at length. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are usually the two instances where it stops being
Speaker 1: about this may have been about the devil. This is
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not so much any of the
Speaker 1: legends around it. And they really kind of just do
Speaker 1: a detailed analysis. They write out how the script was written,
Speaker 1: They write out, you know, details about sizing and the
Speaker 1: ruling and possible meanings of things. But those are really
Speaker 1: the big two that they uh that are often referenced
Speaker 1: as like when it really became something that was significantly
Speaker 1: documented and recorded. And we mentioned earlier in the podcast
Speaker 1: that the book was rebound and repaired in the early
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, and the man who did that work was
Speaker 1: named Samuel Sloman, and he was paid a total of
Speaker 1: seventy eight weeks dollar for the job. A copy of
Speaker 1: his invoice is kept in the Royal Library of Sweden.
Speaker 1: And there's a sort of charming comparison in the notes
Speaker 1: on the National Library of Sweden's site about this book
Speaker 1: about the money that Salmon was paid for his work
Speaker 1: on the Codex, and it states, quote, this is difficult
Speaker 1: to relate to modern currency, but in eighteen twenty a
Speaker 1: cow could cost forty five reeks dollar, and this gives
Speaker 1: some idea of the value of Sonoman's work. I love
Speaker 1: that it's measured in how much cows would cost. Because
Speaker 1: of the enormous sighe at the Codex, it would seem
Speaker 1: like an unwieldy thing to actually study or read. But
Speaker 1: there's evidence that the so called Devil's Bible did see
Speaker 1: some practical use. We know that it would have been
Speaker 1: normal for both the Old and New Testaments, who have
Speaker 1: been read daily in a monastery, and it stands to
Speaker 1: reason that the missing pages of the Rule of Saint
Speaker 1: Benedict would have had practical application as well, and it
Speaker 1: was also common for Benedictine monks to care for the sick.
Speaker 1: There are actually several Benedictine monasteries throughout Europe that have
Speaker 1: been recognized for their medical knowledge and their teaching throughout
Speaker 1: the centuries, so the medical text and the Codex may
Speaker 1: have had very practical uses in those endeavors. There are
Speaker 1: also some actual indications of use, so we don't have
Speaker 1: to depend on the presumption of the book's importance in
Speaker 1: the context of normal monastic pursuits. And the margins of
Speaker 1: the manuscript at various points of interest. Is the Latin
Speaker 1: word nota in a different script than the scribe used
Speaker 1: several thirteenth century prayers are also written in the margins,
Speaker 1: and there are also musical notations and notes about songs
Speaker 1: that would normally accompany a mass that have been kind
Speaker 1: of jotted at the bottoms of various pages of the calendar,
Speaker 1: so we know people were actually using this and touching
Speaker 1: it and making notes in it like they would almost
Speaker 1: any other book. While the Kodax Gigas has been on
Speaker 1: display in both New York and Berlin. In two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: it went home to Prague for a little while. The
Speaker 1: largest medieval manuscript we know of was loaned to the
Speaker 1: Czech Republic by Sweden to be displayed from September twenty,
Speaker 1: two thousand seven until January six, two thousand eight, and
Speaker 1: it drew pretty huge crowds, uh, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: it was kind of limited in how you could see it.
Speaker 1: Only sixty people per hour could be admitted to the
Speaker 1: room where the book was displayed, and visitors were only
Speaker 1: allowed to stay for ten minutes each to catch a
Speaker 1: glimpse of the book, which was in its specially designed case,
Speaker 1: so obviously people could not interact with it. But what's
Speaker 1: very sort of telling is the book was opened to
Speaker 1: one particular page for display, and of course that was
Speaker 1: where on the one side is the illustration on the
Speaker 1: left of Heavenly Jerusalem, and on the other is the Devil.
Speaker 1: Of course, so that is the Codex Gigus. Do you
Speaker 1: also have listener mail, I suppose so absolutely do. This
Speaker 1: is from our listener Miles, and it is about our
Speaker 1: narcolepsy episode and he wrote this one only the first
Speaker 1: one had aired and he says thank you for producing
Speaker 1: an episode dedicated to narcolepsy. I'm a twenty eight year
Speaker 1: old male in Melbourne, Australia who was diagnosed with the
Speaker 1: condition plus cataplexy four years ago. My symptoms started with
Speaker 1: my face feeling funny in a faintness coming over me
Speaker 1: whilst laughing. I spent a week in hospital after collapsing
Speaker 1: in the bush after an attack. After many tests, I
Speaker 1: was sent home and told I was depressed. I recall
Speaker 1: one doctor being annoyed at me for constantly falling asleep
Speaker 1: whilst they were trying to monitor my brain for epilepsy.
Speaker 1: Refusing to accept that diagnosis, I turned to Google and
Speaker 1: I correctly diagnosed myself. I have an excellent specialist who
Speaker 1: I keep in touch with, and I manage the condition
Speaker 1: as best I can. Finally, I became a podcast history
Speaker 1: stuff addict as a result of this condition, as I
Speaker 1: find that listening to something interesting keeps my brain alert
Speaker 1: while I work on my computer all day. Before being diagnosed,
Speaker 1: I was going totally crazy. I was like a drunk
Speaker 1: lunatic with a temper all the time, and it's a
Speaker 1: miracle that my partner Jane stayed with me while I
Speaker 1: get by with our ecalepsy is a real drag. It's
Speaker 1: impossible to convey to people the feeling of a sleep attack,
Speaker 1: and I find the hardest thing about being ourcaleptic is
Speaker 1: that very few people understand the severity of the condition
Speaker 1: and how consistent it is. Not an hour passes without
Speaker 1: me having to think about what I'm eating, and while
Speaker 1: when I'll be sleeping, being up beat, thinking ahead and
Speaker 1: getting to work are the hardest things. Looking forward to
Speaker 1: part two. Thank you so much, Miles, because I feel
Speaker 1: like this is an insight into it that like we
Speaker 1: can never provide, we can do all the research we
Speaker 1: can uh and even throughout Tracy and I recording today,
Speaker 1: I have my computer in front of me and I
Speaker 1: have seen a couple of other email is popping up
Speaker 1: with the notifications in the corner about the narcolepsy episode,
Speaker 1: and one I opened during a break and it was
Speaker 1: another person kind of discussing how hard it is to
Speaker 1: live with So I'm very thankful that we have kind
Speaker 1: of some some additional insight to inform that those podcast
Speaker 1: episodes and kind of what it's really like. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Miles. I really do appreciate you sharing
Speaker 1: your story with us. If you would like to write
Speaker 1: to us, you can do so at history podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. You know so hook up
Speaker 1: with us on Twitter at Miston History and on Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com slash misst in History. We're on Tumblr at
Speaker 1: mist in history dot CoML dot com and on Pinterest
Speaker 1: at pinterest dot com slash mist in History. This codex
Speaker 1: episode is another one that I look forward to. Pinning, pinning, pinning. Uh.
Speaker 1: You can also visit us at miss in history dot
Speaker 1: spreadshirt dot com if you would like some cool missed
Speaker 1: in History merchandise like t shirts and bags, et cetera.
Speaker 1: If you would like to research a little bit more
Speaker 1: about what we talked about today, you could go to
Speaker 1: our parents site, how stuff Works. Type in the word
Speaker 1: codex into the search term, and you will get an
Speaker 1: article called top ten rare books, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: some other codexes. I don't know if that's the correct
Speaker 1: way to pluralize that, but you should go visit it
Speaker 1: and read that article. You can also visit us at
Speaker 1: our home on the web, which is missed in History
Speaker 1: dot com, where you will find our entire back catalog
Speaker 1: of episodes. There are show notes for any of the episodes.
Speaker 1: In the last couple of years, we also have the
Speaker 1: occasional blog post, so come and visit us there at
Speaker 1: missed in History dot com and visit our parent company,
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com for more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how staff works dot com.