Codex Seraphinianus

I was in the opulent Rizzoli bookshop on 57th street a few weeks back, where I encountered a most magnificent tome.  CODEX SERAPHINIANUS is a beautiful beast of a book.  It is giant and heavy and has all of the majesty of some sort of grimoire or encyclopedia of an alternative universe.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, and should tell you what it contains.

The book was written and illustrated by Luigi Serafini in the 1970s.  It is an imaginary record of a strange world written in an invented language, divvied up into 11 chapters, and organized thusly:

The first section appears to describe the natural world, dealing with flora, fauna, and physics. The second deals with the humanities, the various aspects of human life: clothing, history, cuisine, architecture and so on. Each chapter seems to treat a general encyclopedic topic. The topics of each separate chapter are as follows:

• The first chapter describes many alien types of flora: strange flowers, trees that uproot themselves and migrate, etc.
• The second chapter is devoted to the fauna of this alien world, depicting many animals that are surreal variations of the horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, birds, etc.
• The third chapter deals with what seems to be a separate kingdom of odd bipedal creatures, apparently engineered for various purposes.
• The fourth chapter deals with something that seems to be physics and chemistry, and is by far the most abstract and enigmatic.
• The fifth chapter deals with bizarre machines and vehicles.
• The sixth chapter explores the general humanities: biology, sexuality, various aboriginal peoples, and even shows examples of plant life and tools (such as pens and wrenches) grafted directly into the human body.
• The seventh chapter is historical. It shows many people (some only vaguely human) of unknown significance, giving their times of birth and death. It also depicts many scenes of historical (and possibly religious) significance. Also included are examples of burial and funereal customs.
• The eighth chapter depicts the history of the Codex's alien writing system.
• The ninth chapter deals with food, dining practices, and clothing.
• The tenth chapter describes bizarre games (including playing cards and board games) and athletic sports.
• The eleventh chapter is devoted entirely to architecture.

Thanks, wikipedia!  The drawings are every bit as surreal and riveting as one would hope.  Here are a few sample pages to wet your whistle:

Comments

[Martha]

Thank you for posting this. I have coveted this book since I saw it in the late 80s. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous

[Jessie]

Beautiful! Thank you so much for posting. I only wish I could see the whole thing!

[Pete Kane]

Totally amazing. Just out of curiosity, how much was it retailing for?

[Pam]

Hi, Pete! It was $500 at the bookstore. So, I didn't buy it, obvs. But one day it will be mine...

[Alyona]

reminds me of Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius". thanks for posting!