I’ve had a few fans ask, why “The Devil’s Bible” series? Why on earth would I pick a name like that?

Ah, but you see, that nickname is not a fictional creation. The name is linked to a real artifact, a massive tome once considered one of the eight wonders of the world. In On A Black Horse, psychotic billionaire Frank Doors will sell his soul to get his hands on this ancient, holy book known as the “Codex Gigas.” The novels are fiction, but this object of Frank’s obsession is absolutely real.

The Codex Gigas is a three foot long, two foot wide organic bit of madness with holistic cures, exorcism rites, and a full length portrait of Satan himself smack in the center. A painting of the golden walkways of heaven lies directly across from this visage, stroked meticulously onto the animal skin page with insect ink.

What does it mean? Why did Herman the recluse, the monk most often linked to authorship, feel compelled to place a satanic portrait in the center of his spiritual masterpiece? None can say, but years of speculation have faded into legends and myths, with one persisting longer than most, and cursing the manuscript with its blasphemous name.

The sheer size of the work led to incredulous speculation as to its creation. How could a single man create such a monstrously huge Codex in one lifetime? Such a feat seemed so overwhelming, so impossible, that a different, much more sinister explanation took hold then simple hard work. The legend, and the nickname “Devil’s Bible,” persist to this day.

It is rumored that the monk that created the Codex Gigas did not so out of duty, but despair. It was not a gift of a grace-filled savant, but of a tortured murder that was willing to make a deal. Any deal.

The monk, the story goes, committed an atrocity so foul as to be shut away from mankind forever. He was to be walled up within the walls of the abbey itself, a living sacrifice of atonement.

The monk begged for a deal, one last whisper of grace. Give me a night, one night and I will create a work of God so great, you will know that I am forgiven! All the knowledge of man, all the writings of God, written out in just one night!

So his sentence was suspended until sunrise, a last, fleeting chance for a miracle. Writing franticly in the drafty tower, surrounded by candle wax and howling winds, the desperate monk painted and scratched. The abbey clock struck midnight and his heart froze. He would never finish in time. He was doomed.

Or not. Your choice my friend.

The legends whisper how a visitor came to him that night, recognizing a soul ripe for picking. A voice whispered down the stone halls and wrapped around the Monk’s desperation like a warm cat. A deal was struck, the work would be done, with one condition met.

And the next morning it rested on the table, the massive Codex Gigas, with a full length portrait of the Great Deceiver on its page.

Legends as to its origins notwithstanding, the Codex Gigas remains a beautiful testament to faith and artistic devotion. Science will tell you that it is very possible that one Monk created the entire work, in fact, many experts who’ve examined it have come to that conclusion.

It is also very likely that the monk had plenty of time to devote to a manuscript that continues to fascinate all who study it, no deal with the devil needed. Indeed, Herman the recluse would surely be offended by the nickname tagged to his life’s work.

And yet, interestingly enough, over the years the page Bezelbub is painted on has turned black. Some rumors persist, don’t they?