Codex Peculiaris

The Codex Peculiaris, from Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders

The Codex Peculiaris is a book in peculiardom. It is the largest illuminated manuscript in the world, and is considered a precursor to the Map of Days.

History

The book was written by a peculiar monk from Constantinople named Theodore the Hermit, around AD 850. Legend has it that a powerful nobleman wanted the secrets of peculiardom from Theodore, who refused but was then condemned to be walled up alive and starved to death. Bargaining for his life, Theodore promised to write, in a single night, a book that encapsulated all peculiar knowledge- which he managed, though the book's calligraphy alone would take even a diligent scribe twenty years to complete. When the nobleman read the Codex, he went mad.

The Codex is several feet tall, weighs over 200 pounds, and is made from the skins of of 160 donkeys. It was once thrown from an upper-story window to save it from a fire, crushing the two people who tried to catch it. It contains early information about faraway loops, lands and peculiar folk who passed through Theodore's city. It also contains stories about the elder peculiars and the conflicts involving Abaton and the Library of Souls, a treatise on peculiar anatomy and biology, lists of important peculiars and the means of contacting them, and advice for living among normals.