When most people see it, they aren't drawn to its most obvious features.

You'd think they'd be amazed by how old it is dating back to the early 1200s.

After all, manuscripts from that date range are pretty rare.

The fact that this handwritten copy of the Christian Bible is still around after 800 years

should probably be a major selling point.

Or maybe you would assume people would be attracted to the book's physical size.

Think of the largest book in your house, maybe a gorgeous coffee table book or one of those

big omnibus versions of your favorite comic book series, you know the chunky ones.

Well, most of those big books would look tiny next to this thing because it measures roughly

three feet tall by a foot and a half wide. Never mind that it's nearly nine inches thick.

And those dimensions make it the largest illuminated medieval manuscript in existence.

And yet, even that isn't what draws people to look at it.

No, the big attraction for visitors to the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm is the

full-page illustration that's typically visible when it's laid open.

Because there, filling the full span of one page is an illustration of Satan.

In fact, even though the manuscript's size is where its name comes from, Codex Gigas,

after all, just means giant book.

Its popular title comes from that hauntingly chilling image, the Devil's Bible.

It's a massive artifact of a bygone age when books had to be copied by hand one at a time

rather than printed by the thousands every day. But it's also an example of one of our

longest running and most problematic habits. Wherever we find an object or location we've

been told to be afraid of, it usually ends up with a devilish nickname.

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