[kj] Something Jaz might like: 165 lb. medieval "Devil's Bible" displayed in Czech Republic

[Lennonka]

Cool!
I didn't know that we don't own the Cosmas' Chronicle (it's a part of this
codex important for Cz history.)
[The overview of literature and history has never been my cup of tea...]

Thanks for this, Oliver : )

Llennia

"Time means nothing."

2007/9/21, B. Oliver Sheppard <bigblackhair at sbcglobal.net>:

>

> Wikipedia entry on this fascinating book is here:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Gigas

>

>

>

>

> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070920/lf_afp/czechswedenhistorycultureart_070920150923;_ylt=Aju9kpQoFJecmZLj3Tc5IicFO7gF

>

>

>   Czechs get chance to view rare medieval manuscript

>

> /Thu Sep 20, 11:09 AM ET/

>

> Czechs got the chance to examine the world's biggest medieval

> manuscript, the "Codex Gigas" or "Devil's Bible," for the first time in

> almost 359 years on Thursday when the precious work went on show as part

> of a four-month-long exhibition.

>

> The 13th century masterpiece, considered at the time as the eighth

> wonder of the world, was carried off as booty by Swedish troops from

> Prague during the Thirty Years' War but has returned at the end of

> painstaking negotiations and preparations between Prague and Stockholm.

>

> The 624-page, 75-kilogramme (165-pound) work is on display in a

> specially designed safe-like room in a former Jesuit college in the

> centre of historic Prague with visitors limited to 10 at a time and

> rationed to a few minutes each.

>

> The book is so valuable that its Swedish owners insisted on a state

> guarantee worth 300 million koruna (10.8 million euros, 15.1 million

> dollars) rather than a normal commercial insurance to cover any

> eventualities, director of the Czech National Library, Vlastimil Jezek,

> explained at the unveiling of the exhibition.

>

> The return of the "Devil's Bible," which owes its name to a superb

> illustration of the devil found inside and the legend about its creator,

> demanded long-drawn out negotiations.

>

> "During discussions, you could feel on the Swedish side the underlying

> question: 'If we lend this to you Czechs, will you give it back to us?'"

> Jezek recounted with a wry smile.

>

> The manuscript was the work of a monk working at the Pozlazice monastery

> located in the centre of the current Czech Republic. The monastery was

> destroyed during the 15th-century wars of religion.

>

> Legend has it that the monk was condemned to be walled up alive for

> committing a grave crime. To escape from that slow death, he proposed to

> create the masterpiece in a night so that it would bring glory to the

> monastery and wipe out his sins.

>

> To achieve that, however, he had to solicit help from the devil and, in

> recognition of that aid, slipped in the illustration of his "helper" in

> the final work.

>

> Lodged among the Prague treasures of the celebrated arts collector

> Emperor Rudolph II, the rare book was carried off by troops of Swedish

> general Konigsmark at the end of the Thirty Years' War.

>

>

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