The Codex Gigas, or Devil's Bible, was written in the 13th century by a Benedictine monk. The book is composed of 310 sheets of parchment and 2 sheets of paper (pasted to the insides), and weighs nearly 165 pounds.

The Devil's Bible contains the Old Testament, minus Acts and Revelation. After the Old Testament is "The Antiquities" and "The Jewish War" written by Flavius Josephus. Following these is an Encyclopedia by Isidore of Seville. Various medical works come next, followed by the New Testament. Last of the long works included in the manuscript is Chronicle of Bohemia, by Cosmas of Prague.

Since its completion the book has been highly coveted. It stayed at Podlažice, the monastery where it was written, until the monastery was destroyed. Afterwards, it switched from the Cistercians Sedlec monastery to the Benedictine monastery in B?evnov. It later moved to a monastery in Broumov until it was moved to Prague to become part of Rudolf II's collection. In 1648 the codex and the rest of the collection was stolen by the Swedish Army at the end of the Thirty Years War.