The Codex Seraphinianus as a rare collectible book.
This is a rare book worth keeping an eye out for. It can be found in the $500 - $600 price range but keep your eyes open for an undervalued copy. It would be a facinating book for many collectors and collections.
The CODEX SERAPHINIANUS
The Codex Seraphinianus was written and illustrated by Italian graphic designer and architect, Luigi Serafini during the late 1970's. The Codex is a lavishly produced book that purports to be an encyclopedia for an imaginary world in a parallel universe, with copious comments in an incomprehensible language. It is written in a florid script, entirely invented and completely illegible, and illustrated with watercolor paintings. The Codex is divided into a number of sections (each with its own table of contents, the page numbers are in base-21 or base-22!) on subjects such as plants, animals, inhabitants, machines, clothing, architecture, numbers, cards, chemical analyses, labyrinth, Babel, foods... There are panoramic scenes of incomprehensible festivals, and diagrams of plumbing!
The Codex is to that imaginary world what Diderot's Encyclopedia is to ours. Obviously, Serafini was not just attempting to create a consistent alternate world. Rather, the Codex is sort of an elaborate parody of the real world.
The invented script of the book imitates the Western-style writing systems (left-to-right writing in rows; an alphabet with uppercase and lowercase; probably a separate set of symbols for writing numerals) but is much more curvilinear reminding some Semitic scripts. The writing seems to have been designed to appear, but not actually be, meaningful, like the Voynich Manuscript.
At is best, the Codex Seraphinianus is really diverting and surrealist. This book was surely inspired by the Voynich Manuscript and designed with the spirit of Hieronymus Bosch in mind.
Images and text courtesy of Archimedes Lab. We thank them for permission to use their images and text on this valuable collectible book. They can be reached HERE
ACQUIRING THE CODEX Codex Seraphinianus is a rare and expensive book, a first edition is available as I write this and can be ordered from ******HERE******
Here is the description from ABE from one seller: Book Description: Franco Maria Ricci, Milano, Italia, 1993. Decorative Silk. Book Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. Serafini, Luigi (illustrator). First Edition. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. First edition with Spanish introduction. Limited to 5,000 copies, individually numbered. Black silk binding, decorated in gilt, color pastedown. Folio. Illustrated throughout with strange and wonderful color drawings in Serafini's unique otherwordly language. Handmade paper by Cartiere Miliano Fabriano. In custom black silk covered clamshell box. New in new silk clamshell box. Limited and Numbered.
Codex Seraphinianus Several First Edition copies are available from ABE ******HERE******
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