MYSTICAL: The Devil’s Bible

Around the year 1229, one Bohemian monk supposedly made a deal with the devil resulting in a giant book that was written in one single night. As the book exchanged hands over the following centuries, it was said to be cursed, even hypnotizing those who laid eyes on it. Today, the manuscript sits in a library in Stockholm, but nobody has fully explained how it was written or where its missing pages went or said.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.

• 0:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  There are a lot of things I love about the internet, like how it makes life so easy. I can order all of my groceries for the week. I see you, DoorDash. Or schedule a doctor's appointment. Or stay connected with my Ohana and friends all over the world, all without ever leaving my couch. But the best thing about the web is all of the information it has. If I get into a debate with someone about a random piece of trivia, normally it's about celebrities, we can settle it quickly with a Google search. If I want to know what the weather is on both coasts in my favorite cities, New York City or LA, if I need a recipe for soup or have questions about a random tax document I got in the mail,

• 1:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  the answers are all literally right there at my fingertips. It's pretty wild if you think about it.

• 1:22Yvette Gentile?

  Eight hundred years ago, a medieval monk was challenged with the same idea. No internet, no search engine, no couch to sit on, just an impossible amount of knowledge and a single burning task. Put it all down in one specific place. The result was one of the largest, most ambitious manuscripts ever created. A book so big, so strange, and so deeply unsettling that people stopped asking how he wrote it and started asking, what deal did he make to get it done? It's called the Codex Gigus, or as it's more commonly known, the Devil's Bible.

• 2:05Yvette Gentile?

  Many people believe Satan himself helped the monk write that book. And afterward, the Codex Gigus may have been cursed for all of eternity. Supposedly, anyone who reads it experiences terrible tragedies. They're driven insane or die some horrible death. But today, we're going to step back in history, curse or no curse. We're gonna dive into the Devil's Bible. I'm Yvette Gentile.

• 2:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecoraro. Welcome back to So Supernatural.

• 3:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  I love a good library. There is something about them that just feels so magical. Millions of little worlds all in one place. Endless characters you can become. Bottomless information to absorb. I've always felt like if I had to be stuck in one public place, a library would be my top choice. And there's one library on my bucket list. It's supposed to be in a category all on its own. It's called the National Library in Stockholm, Sweden. The place is huge with five floors that are open to visitors and 14 floors that are underground.

• 3:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  Aside from the countless rooms that are filled floor to ceiling with books, it has an auditorium where guest speakers come to give lectures, and there are private reading rooms. It even has its own café and restaurant in case you need some study fuel. And it's also where you can find the largest medieval manuscript that still exists today. An 800-year-old book that's so delicate, the library keeps it in a special, climate-controlled glass case. So you can't flip through the pages with your own dirty little hands. It kind of reminds me of National Treasure.

• 4:33Yvette Gentile?

  The manuscript Rasha's referring to is called the Codex Gigus. That's a Latin phrase that translates to giant book. And it means that, literally, the Codex Gigus is three feet tall and over a foot and a half wide. It's only 620 pages long, though, which makes it shorter than Stephen King's It and every book in the Game of Thrones series. But it's worth noting that the handwriting in the Codex Gigus is tiny. We don't know the book's exact word count, but we do know the author squeezed about 106 lines of text on every single page. The book is also made of sheets of animal skin.

• 5:18Yvette Gentile?

  People hadn't figured out how to make good-quality paper yet in the 1200 CE when it was written. So most books from the time were made of animal skin, or, as historians call it, parchment. The experts aren't sure what species the codex pages came from, but they suspect it was either donkey or calf skin. And it would have taken a lot of animals, I mean roughly 160, to make enough parchment for the book. And the pages are thicker and heavier than ordinary paper. So the Codex Gigus is nine inches thick, cover to cover. And it weighs more than 160 pounds.

• 6:01Yvette Gentile?

  I mean, that is humongous.

• 6:04Rasha Pecoraro?

  As for what's written on all those pages, well, the Codex Gigus isn't just one story. Instead, it's a compilation of a bunch of different books, many of which were published elsewhere previously. For example, it includes the Complete Bible in Latin and an important historical book written in the 100s CE called Antiquities of the Jews, which was written by an ancient Roman historian named Josephus. The book is one of the oldest texts about the history of the Jewish people, their beliefs, and their culture. The codex also contains a collection of medical texts from roughly 1000 CE.

• 6:49Rasha Pecoraro?

  It has a long list of important historic and religious figures along with their birth dates. It has instructions on how to perform exorcisms and other magical rituals. And there's a whole encyclopedia within its pages. The book is also full of colorful, elaborate illustrations like geometric designs in the margins that some think might be initials and a portrait of the Roman historian Josephus, which is next to the prologue of his work. But there's one drawing in it that's infamous. It's two full-page illustrations toward the end of the book. The page on the left shows a beautiful, gleaming city.

• 7:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  And the page on the right shows the devil himself. He has an ordinary human body, but with long, red claws coming from his fingers and his toes. And his face is green. There are a pair of red horns sprouting out of the top of his head and a set of tusks coming from his mouth. In the background, you can see two faint towers, which some say are meant to depict hell itself. It's rare for religious texts like the Bible to include art depicting hell or Satan. In fact, historians think this may be the first time

• 8:12Rasha Pecoraro?

  anyone ever included a full-page picture of the devil in a religious text. That's why some people call this book the Devil's Bible. Or at least, that's one of the reasons. But before we can get into the others, we need to talk about how the Codex Gigus was created.

• 8:32Yvette Gentile?

  Well, historians believe the book was supposed to contain all of the world's knowledge, or at least all that was known at the time when it was written, probably between 1200 and 1230 CE. But it's hard to say for sure, because there's virtually no record of who composed the Devil's Bible, or why. It was probably transcribed by a monk, because several of the texts in it were popular in monasteries in the 1200s. The book also contained a lengthy history of a region called Bohemia, and that's a country that once existed in what's now the Czech Republic. It seems likely the author was Bohemian, since they thought it was important to include this history.

• 9:17Yvette Gentile?

  As for who the author was, well, the codex was signed by someone named Hermanus Inclusus. That translates to Herman the Recluse, but there's no other record of his birth, life, or death. We don't know where he was from, how old he was, or anything else about him. But the handwriting is incredibly consistent all the way through the book, meaning the same person must have written it all. As for why he did it, well, there's a legend that might explain his motive.

• 9:50Rasha Pecoraro?

  This story is so old, we don't even know when or how it originated. But the tale says Herman the Recluse was a monk somewhere in Bohemia, and at some point around the year 1200, he committed some kind of horrible crime. The accounts don't say what he did, but he got caught. And the monastery's head monk, or the abbot, ordered him to be put to death. Herman's execution was supposed to be particularly painful and drawn out. The abbot said he'd be shut inside a room. Then the other monks would brick up the entrance so Herman couldn't get in or out, and no one could interact with him.

• 10:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  He'd be trapped to slowly starve or die of dehydration. So when the day came, the other monks allegedly escorted him to the space that would become his tomb. Then, they began laying bricks and spreading mortar. The whole time, Herman begged the abbot to have mercy and let him live, but he and the other monks ignored him, placing brick after brick after brick. Finally, the wall was almost complete. There was only a tiny gap, just big enough to fit one last brick. And that's when the abbot ordered the monks to stop. He said he'd give Herman another chance, under one condition.

• 11:17Rasha Pecoraro?

  He had to write a book containing all of the world's knowledge, and he had to do it in a single night and complete it before morning. If he completed the challenge, he would be forgiven. This was an impossible task, and seemingly pretty random. Maybe the abbot was intentionally setting Herman up to fail. Still, he ordered the other monks to gather all of the papers and books they had in the monastery. They passed them through the small hole in the wall so Herman could read and transcribe them. For hours, Herman sat at a desk copying texts from the other books into the codex. But he'd barely made a dent in his to-do list.

• 11:59Rasha Pecoraro?

  It was clear that Herman would need years to write all of this down. By about midnight, he was completely discouraged and about to give up. And that's when he said a prayer. But it wasn't to God, it was to the devil.

• 12:15Yvette Gentile?

  The legend says Herman promised to sell his soul if Satan would just help him complete the book by the deadline. And the Prince of Hell answered. He apparently helped him create the Codex Gigas that very night. And depending on which version you believe, the codex either appeared in an instant, already written, or it took Herman a few hours to frantically write the rest of it down. Either way, once the text was finished, it said Herman drew the picture of Satan inside to honor his new master.

• 12:54Yvette Gentile?

  Or, in the other version of the story, the devil inserted his own self-portrait into the Bible. That way, everyone who looked at the text would know exactly how it had been created. That is scary.

• 13:11Rasha Pecoraro?

  So scary. I could only look at it for literally 10 seconds when we were doing our research. I'm like, eh, and I've seen it, and I'm done.

• 13:19Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, same. I could not put, and I couldn't put my energy towards it. It's just a weird picture.

• 13:24Rasha Pecoraro?

  Yeah. Well, we don't know how the other monks reacted when they saw the completed Devil's Bible the next morning, but the abbot realized he had to hold up his end of the bargain. So he set Herman free, and apparently, he lived for some time afterward. But for the rest of his life, Herman was in a state of constant misery. He'd saved his life, but lost his soul in the process. And he knew the moment he died, he'd have to spend eternity in hell. One day, that stress and anxiety became way too much for him.

• 14:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  He prayed to the Virgin Mary, asking if there was some way for her to undo the bargain that he'd made with the devil and save him. Then Herman saw a vision of Mary before him. She reached out her hand, and just before she touched him, he dropped dead.

• 14:24Yvette Gentile?

  And according to other stories, Herman wasn't unique. Many other people suffered terrible fates after coming into contact with the Codex Gigas. It happens so often that people today believe the book is cursed.

• 14:41Speaker 00

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• 14:55Speaker 00

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• 15:10Speaker 03

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• 15:15Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 15:19Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 15:25Speaker 04

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines, and I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 15:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 15:48Speaker 04

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files, we're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 15:55Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now, and you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 16:07Yvette Gentile?

  The first documented disaster happened in 1477, about 250 years after the book's creation. At that time, it belonged to a Bohemian monastery, but the monks who lived there had fallen on hard times. They could barely make ends meet, keep food on their table, or even a roof over their heads. They had no choice but to pawn their valuables for quick cash. This included the Codex Gigas, which they sold to a different monastery in the Bohemian capital city of Prague.

• 16:49Yvette Gentile?

  It was called the Brevnov monastery. Almost immediately after the original monks sold their book, political unrest broke out in their hometown. The locals revolted, and revolutionaries burned their monastery to the ground. It could have been a coincidence, but maybe the monks experienced all of this misfortune because of their association with the codex. Perhaps it had caused their financial troubles and the riot that destroyed the monastery.

• 17:23Rasha Pecoraro?

  But with the Devil's Bible now in Brevnov, it was safe from the destruction, though it wouldn't stay there for long. In 1594, the monks loaned it to the Holy Roman Emperor and the ruling power over Bohemia, Rudolph II. He'd always been interested in magic and the occult, and the leaders of the monastery thought he'd find the Devil's Bible interesting. They had it sent to his palace in Prague, and apparently, the moment he received the package and took one look at the Codex Gigas, a weird sensation washed over him. Rudolph was fascinated by it, almost obsessed. It seemed like the book had somehow taken over his mind.

• 18:08Rasha Pecoraro?

  After that, Rudolph refused to return it. Instead, he became very possessive of it. And as the years went on, Rudolph became noticeably paranoid. His behavior was erratic. They say he became pretty reclusive and didn't really leave his palace. Most of his time was spent poring over the Codex Gigas. Many people believed he was struggling with his mental health, but psychology was poorly understood at the time, so he wasn't formally diagnosed with anything. Some believe the Devil's Bible had a dark influence over him, and it may have been powerful enough to drive him mad.

• 18:50Rasha Pecoraro?

  Eventually, he couldn't even focus on making sure his empire was running smoothly. It was so bad that the Bohemian nobility staged a coup, saying he wasn't fit to rule anymore. In the early 1600s, they declared his brother Matthias the New Emperor. Then they threw Rudolph in a prison until he agreed to give up the throne.

• 19:14Yvette Gentile?

  Well, this was the start of a long period of political instability in Bohemia. In 1618, they went to war against Sweden. Thirty years later, the war was still raging. But it was getting close to an end, and things weren't looking good for the Bohemian side. In 1648, the Swedish army stormed the capital city of Prague. Soldiers and looters swept through the palace's buildings and homes. They gathered whatever valuables they could get their hands on. When they found the Codex Giggis, they recognized that it was a rare, old, and very important book. So they kept it for themselves and brought it back to Stockholm.

• 19:59Yvette Gentile?

  But only a few decades passed before disaster struck again. This time, it was a massive fire which blazed through the city in 1697. The flames reached the Royal Library, where the book was being stored. A librarian rushed through the stacks, grabbing the most valuable books. When they spotted the Codex Giggis, they knew that they couldn't let the flames reach it.

• 20:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  Maybe because it was 165 pounds, the person tossed the Codex Giggis out the window instead of walking out the door with it. Supposedly, they hoped it would land far enough from the building to be safe from the fire. But through an incredible and highly improbable stroke of bad luck, a person was walking right under the window at that exact time. All that weight came crashing down on this unfortunate soul. Thankfully, they weren't killed, but they were injured.

• 21:00Yvette Gentile?

  After that disaster, the Devil's Bible was put in the National Library of Sweden, which is where it's stored today. And in 1858, an employee was working in the storage room where it was kept, and we're just gonna call him Eric. Well, apparently, Eric was getting tired, so he decided to take a little nap on the job, but he overslept. By the time he woke up, the library was closed for the day. The doors were locked, and he was trapped in the room with the Codex Giggis. Before Eric could process it, he saw movement on the shelves. Countless books were shuffling and shifting, but nobody was around to rearrange them.

• 21:45Yvette Gentile?

  They were climbing down off the shelves on their own. While Eric watched, they jumped onto the ground and surrounded the Codex Giggis. And then all of the books, including the Devil's Bible, began dancing in some kind of ritual. Or at least, that's what Eric claimed happened during his night alone in the library. The next morning, his coworkers unlocked the doors to find him ranting and raving about magical books and the evil Codex. But nobody believed him. Instead, they had him committed to a mental health facility, where he spent the rest of his life.

• 22:29Yvette Gentile?

  And we can't say if Eric's vision was true or not, but the sad thing is, everything changed for the worse for him after he encountered the Codex.

• 22:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  And it wasn't done ruining people's lives. Twenty years later, in 1878, two aspiring authors crossed paths with the cursed book. Their names were Eugene Falsted and Austin Schrinberg. Eugene and August had heard rumors about the Devil's Bible and its curse. So they wanted to check it out for themselves and see if it was really as scary as everyone claimed. Luckily, August had a job at the National Library of Sweden, which meant he also had a set of keys. So late one night, after the library closed, he unlocked the door and welcomed Eugene inside with him. They walked straight to the room where the Codex was stored.

• 23:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  They lit lanterns, opened its heavy cover, and began skimming the pages. Eugene noticed that August seemed way too interested in the old Latin Bible passages. It almost appeared as if the book had enchanted him. Before Eugene could ask his friend what he was thinking, August looked up, and he asked, quote, "Do you hear the voices too?" At some point, Eugene convinced his friend to leave the library. But afterward, August's fascination only grew more intense. Eugene eventually learned August was sneaking into the library night after night, just so he could read the Devil's Bible for hours on end.

• 24:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  According to ArtNet reporter Tim Brinkoff, August hoped it would put him in touch with some kind of demonic or otherworldly entity. We don't know if he achieved that goal, but he did go on to have a wildly successful literary career. He wrote plays and bestselling novels. Some consider him to be the greatest Swedish writer who ever lived. Most people would agree that he achieved that with raw talent and very hard work. But some wonder if perhaps he made a deal with the devil, just like Harmon the Recluse did all those years ago.

• 24:49Yvette Gentile?

  There is one supposed similarity worth mentioning. August was also said to be miserable for the rest of his life. He struggled with alcohol abuse, he got married and divorced multiple times, and he even lost custody of his children. So it's worth wondering if that's just how life goes sometimes, or if he was another victim to the Codex curse.

• 25:16Rasha Pecoraro?

  To this day, weird things still happen around the Devil's Bible. As of this recording, it's still on display in the National Library of Sweden's treasury room. Because it's so old and delicate, people cannot touch it, but they can look into the glass where it's kept. In that room, it's common for lights to dim on their own or for people to hear sounds that don't have a clear source. There are also reports of visitors getting an intense feeling of anxiety when they lay their eyes on the Codex Giggis, as though they can sense something evil lurking within its pages.

• 25:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  In spite of its dark history, the Codex Giggis is now roughly 800 years old, and it's still mostly intact. We say mostly because many historians agree the text is not complete. There are about 10 to 30 pages missing from the manuscript. No one knows if they were intentionally ripped out, or if they were accidentally torn or damaged some other way.

• 26:25Yvette Gentile?

  Additionally, nobody knows what those pages used to say. But according to a writer named Hope Bollinger, they may have once contained a very unique prayer. And it's good that the prayer is no longer available to the public, because it said that if you read it, you'll summon the devil himself. And he may use that opportunity to bring about the apocalypse.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables, it's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.

• 27:28Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 27:30Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 27:36Speaker 04

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines, and I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 27:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 28:00Speaker 04

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files, we're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 28:07Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 28:13Speaker 04

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts. The End of

• 28:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  Historico record say the Codex Gigus used to have 320 donkey or calf skin sheets, each of which had text on the front and the back. This would have made it 640 pages long in total. But today, we only have 620 of those pages. 10 to 12 leaves of parchment have been ripped from it and no one knows exactly when or how they were removed. Scholars say the book may have been damaged during a fire in Stockholm in 1697. Like we mentioned before, librarians saved the Codex from the blaze by tossing it out of a window.

• 29:07Rasha Pecoraro?

  And maybe those pages may have been ripped out in the wind and the smoke. I know, that does sound like a bit of a stretch, but that's what historians say happened.

• 29:18Yvette Gentile?

  A lot of people don't buy that theory though, Rasha. Some conspiracy theorists believe a different story about how those pages got removed. They say that someone cut those 10 to 12 pages out on purpose, and then they spread the fake cover story about the fire damage to hide what they'd done. And they say they did all of this to save the world. Supposedly, the Codex Gigus used to contain a text called "The Devil's Prayer." Nobody knows what it actually said, which is a good thing. I mean, come on, because apparently if anyone ever prayed the devil's prayer, that would kick off the apocalypse.

• 30:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  It's worth noting that throughout history, lots of powerful people treated the devil's Bible like it needed to be hidden or censored. It used to be very common for monks to create multiple versions of every book they owned so the information could be preserved. But in nearly 800 years, up until the digital era, no one ever made a second Codex Gigus. Until the Library of Sweden got around to scanning its pages, there was no backup. In an article with the Daily Star, an anonymous critic notes that this is very strange. In their mind, there was only one good reason for monks to refuse to copy the Codex Gigus.

• 30:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  Its information must be too dangerous for anyone to risk it falling into the wrong hands.

• 30:53Yvette Gentile?

  I don't know if that proves the devil's Bible will actually bring about the end of the world, but one thing is undeniable: it seems to have some kind of supernatural power. People like Emperor Rudolph II and August Strindberg supposedly became obsessed with it after only glancing at it briefly. Perhaps it can even influence the way people think and act without them seeing it in person. I mean, listen to this story, which was posted anonymously on Reddit in late 2025. The author who we'll call Hayden said that "they woke up in the middle of the night one time with an eerie feeling they were being watched.

• 31:35Yvette Gentile?

  They looked around their room and saw something sitting on top of a cabinet in the corner. It was some kind of creature. It had long fingernails and toenails, what seemed to be a distorted human's face, and curved horns and tusk. But Hayden couldn't tell what color its skin, claws, or horns were because it was so dark. The creature spoke to them in a deep, graveling voice, and then threw something at Hayden." Could you even imagine, Rasha?

• 32:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  Nope. Mm-mm. Nope, nope, nope. Nobody know. Well, anyway, it's not clear how the rest of that night went. But a few days went by and Hayden discovered that they ended up having a medical emergency and had to have surgery. While waiting for the procedure, Hayden kept thinking about the weird encounter with the devilish creature the other night. And they started to wonder if it was somehow responsible for what they were going through. Hayden knew better than to voice that out loud, though. They went on to get the operation and make a full recovery. Then years went by, and Hayden almost completely forgot about their creepy experience with

• 32:54Rasha Pecoraro?

  the creature. Until one day, when they were browsing online and happened to stumble across a post about the Codex Gigus. They'd never heard of the devil's Bible before, and the post looked interesting. So Hayden kept scrolling, and they saw the picture of the devil from the book. It was the exact same creature they'd seen in their bedroom all of those years ago. As though Hayden had been visited by the very same devil that appeared to Herman the Reclus back in the 1200s.

• 33:28Yvette Gentile?

  Now, I have to say, it's impossible to verify Hayden's story because, as we know, anyone can post anything on Reddit, right? But when it comes to the claims about the Codex Gigus, well, scholars say there's logical explanations for all of it. First, let's talk about the giant picture of Satan that gave the devil's Bible its nickname. Remember, it's actually part of a two-page illustration. On the right side, you have the devil ruling over hell. On the left, you have a golden city filled with tall towers and leafy gardens, which is thought to be a picture of heaven.

• 34:11Yvette Gentile?

  Scholars think Herman the Reclus put these images side by side to make a point. He was asking readers, "Where do you want to spend eternity? In paradise or eternal torment?" In other words, he probably didn't draw the devil to honor him. Instead, he was basically trying to scare people into living good Christian lives. And many medieval experts say the missing 10 to 12 pages probably weren't a prayer that could kick off the end of times. Instead, they may have been a list of the rules for monks to follow in the monasteries.

• 34:53Yvette Gentile?

  It's unclear why anyone would have torn those rules out intentionally. They weren't especially controversial. Instead, historians think they might have fallen out by accident. Over the course of more than 800 years, it's normal for a book to get a little battered and lose some of its pages.

• 35:12Rasha Pecoraro?

  There's just one detail we cannot explain away: the fact that the handwriting didn't change from one page to the next. Historians say that one person, working alone, would have needed to write for five straight years without stopping to transcribe the Codex Gigus's text. That's not counting all of the illustrations, which also would have taken a very long time to draw. Plus, if you include the time that Herman the Reclus would have spent sleeping, eating, praying, all the things, he probably would have needed roughly 25 years to create the devil's Bible.

• 35:54Rasha Pecoraro?

  But most handwriting experts agree: people's penmanship tends to change over time. If you look at an old shopping list or a greeting card you wrote a few years ago, odds are it looks completely different from how you'd write it now. Plus, when you-

• 36:10Yvette Gentile?

  And you know that's true for me. Sorry.

• 36:13Rasha Pecoraro?

  It is true for you, not for me, though. I am very OCD about my handwriting, I have to say. Plus, when people get old, not like me, Yvette, it's common for their hands to start shaking. And that usually comes across in their penmanship, too. And yet, those same experts examined the devil's Bible, and they say it's shockingly consistent. There is no indication whatsoever that Herman's style changed between the time when he began the Codex and when he finished it. The lettering on page one is basically identical to what's on the final page.

• 36:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  That question of how he wrote so much without changing is one mystery we are not able to explain away. Unless you believe that the devil did, in fact, help him write everything in a single night, or maybe it was something more supernatural.

• 37:20Yvette Gentile?

  There's no way to prove whether the Codex Gigus was written by Satan or if it's cursed, or if it ever contained instructions on how to begin the apocalypse. But it does contain something just as enlightening: a glimpse into life in the 1200s. Thanks to books like the devil's Bible, we have a better sense of what the people back then liked to read, what they valued, and what they believed. That's why I truly love books so much. They have this incredible way of transporting us to completely different worlds, taking

• 38:01Yvette Gentile?

  us through time, letting us step into someone else's shoes, even if it's only for a little while. There's just something so magical about getting lost in a good book. At its core, the Codex Gigus is exactly what Herman intended it to be. A record of everything he knew, everything he feared, everything he believed, a window into a world that no longer exists. Whatever force guided his hand that night, whether it was for good or evil, the result

• 38:40Yvette Gentile?

  has given researchers a unique glimpse into the 13th century like nothing else could. Which means the Codex Gigus might not be a work meant to scare us, but to teach us something instead.

• 39:11Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at @SoSupernaturalPod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all-new episode.

• 39:31Rasha Pecoraro?

  I think Chuck would approve.

• 39:37Speaker 06

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing: Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful: you never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.