Codex Gigas quiz

More questions about Codex Gigas

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1. 1 Medium

   Which European capital houses the original Codex Gigas in its National Library?

   Answer: Stockholm

   Why: Swedish troops seized the manuscript from Prague Castle in 1648 as war plunder during the Thirty Years' War.

2. 2 Easy

   How many scribes wrote the uniform text of the Codex Gigas?

   Answer: One

   Why: Reconstructions suggest it would take a single scribe between twenty and thirty years of continuous labor to finish.

3. 3 Medium

   What material are the Codex Gigas’s pages made of?

   Answer: Parchment

   Why: The Swedish catalogue records 309 parchment leaves, each about 89 by 49 centimetres.

4. 4 Easy

   What record does the Codex Gigas hold among medieval books?

   Answer: Largest in the world

   Why: At 92 cm long and about 75 kg, the Codex Gigas takes two people to lift.

5. 5 Easy

   Why did a monk agree to write the Codex Gigas in legend?

   Answer: To avoid execution

   Why: Legend claims the condemned monk pledged to create a book containing all human knowledge in a single night to save his life.

6. 6 Medium

   In the Codex Gigas, what royal garment does the Devil unexpectedly wear?

   Answer: An ermine loincloth

   Why: The loincloth's red commas are ermine tails, a medieval badge of sovereignty. The 50 cm Devil faces a full page of the Heavenly City.