The Devil’s Bible

An enormous medieval book, the Devil’s Bible is a strange and thought-provoking religious book that was said to have been written entirely in one night by a 13th century monk who sold his soul to the Devil in order to meet his deadline. According to the legend surrounding the Devil’s Bible, the author monk was convicted of breaking his vows and sentenced to a grisly fate. He was going to be walled up alive, left to starve to death in his own tomb. The monk struck a plea deal with the monastery. He would write a single book containing all the knowledge in the world and he would accomplish this impossible feat in one day and night. Left alone to his work, the monk struck a deal with the Devil. In the morning, the monk presented his finished book, with 310 filled pages, to the monastery to secure his release.

Clearly a single person could not hand-write that much in such a short amount of time, yet there are some anomalies with the Devil’s Bible. The handwriting indicates that a single person wrote the entire book and that the work was completed in a relatively short amount of time. The book is massive, measuring three feet in length and it weighs so much that two people are needed to lift it. In the pages of the Devil’s Bible is a complete Latin translation of the Holy Bible, as well as other works, a huge and frightening drawing of the Devil, and pages of medical formulas and notes of exorcisms. The book remains complete today, except for twelve pages that have been removed. No one knows what information was on those missing pages or why they were removed.