Codex Gigas

Codex Gigas, early 13th century, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm. The Devil's Bible, made in Bohemia and the largest medieval manuscript to survive, about 36 inches tall. Legend credits a single monk, Herman the Recluse; Swedish soldiers carried it off from Prague as war booty in 1648. Folio 290r is the page that gave it its nickname: a squatting devil, nearly the height of the page, with red horns, red claws and a forked tongue, crouched alone against a gridded wall. In the book it faces a full-page picture of the Kingdom of Heaven, good and evil set side by side.