So you may need to take the plunge and cut yourself off from the news. That’s hard to do when you can’t take your eyes off of CNN. In order to write well, most writers have to immerse themselves in the fictional world they’re creating, to lose themselves in their characters’ lives and stories. Of course, you don’t need quite that much dedication to focus on your writing today, regardless of how strong the temptation to wall yourself off might be.
It is a vision that today seems a little crazy, but you’ve got to admire the dedication it took. Herman decided to literally wall himself off from the outside world and dedicate his entire life to this one project – pulling together everything that was worth knowing into a single book. Between the need for apprenticeship and failing eyesight due to poor light, twenty years would have probably been Herman’s entire working life. (The 10 th-century nun Hrosvitha of Gandersheim also wrote a comedy play involving the question of waste disposal.) Given the Codex’s size and complexity, it would have taken about twenty years to complete. They were often walled into their cells, with only a small opening left for food and so they could communicate to a small degree with the public – they were often sought out for spiritual advice. In medieval monasteries, recluses were monks who lived in voluntary isolation. And while we can’t be sure, the chronicle of the monastery included in the book provides hints that the scribe was one Herman the Recluse. The most remarkable thing about it is that an analysis of the handwriting shows it was the work of a single scribe. Essentially everything a 13 th-century Bohemian monk could want to know, all in one book. Among other things, it contains the complete Vulgate Bible, Josephus’ History of the Jews and The Jewish War, Isadore of Seville’s encyclopedia, medical works by Constantine Africanus, a treatise on excommunication, and a chronicle of the history of Prague. It is 36 inches tall, 20 inches wide, and nearly 9 inches thick, containing 310 leaves of finely-written text – it’s been estimated that 160 donkeys died to provide the vellum used.
The Codex Gigas was written in the early 13 th-century in a Benedictine monastery in Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Given what was happening, it was hard to look away. I spent too much time constantly refreshing the home page of the Washington Post and checking my Facebook news feed – I have a lot of friends who are fellow news junkies.
I didn’t get a lot of editing done early in January.
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