The Codex Seraphinianus is an illustrated encyclopedia of an imaginary world. It was created by an Italian artist, architect, and industrial designer named Luigi Serafini between 1976 and 1978. The book was first published in 1981. It has about 360 pages, though the exact number may vary by edition. The text is written in a made-up writing system. Originally published in Italy, the book has been made available in many countries around the world.

Description

The Codex is an encyclopedia written in a manuscript with many hand-drawn, colored-pencil illustrations of strange and imaginative plants, animals, body structures, clothing, and food. It has been compared to the still-unreadable Voynich manuscript, the story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges, and the artwork of M. C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch.

The illustrations often show strange, unusual versions of real-world objects, such as a fruit that appears to be bleeding, a plant that grows into the shape of a chair and is then turned into one, and a pair of people who change into an alligator. Other drawings show unusual, seemingly meaningless machines, often with delicate designs and connected by thin threads. Some illustrations look like maps or human faces, while others (especially in the "physics" section) are mostly or completely abstract. Nearly all of the illustrations are brightly colored and very detailed.

Writing system

The false writing system looks similar to Western writing systems. It uses letters arranged in rows from left to right, with uppercase and lowercase letters. Some letters also act as numbers. Certain letters only appear at the start or end of words, like in Semitic writing systems. The letters are curved and shaped like ropes or threads, with loops and knots. They resemble the Sinhala script.

During a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles on May 11, 2009, Serafini explained that the Codex's script has no meaning and is asemic. He compared writing it to automatic writing and said he wanted the alphabet to show how children feel when looking at books they cannot yet understand, even though adults can read them. However, the book's page-numbering system was decoded by Allan C. Wechsler and Bulgarian linguist Ivan Derzhanski. They found it to be a variation of base 21.

Contents

The book is divided into eleven chapters, organized into two sections. The first section appears to focus on the natural world, including plants, animals, and physical phenomena. The second section covers different areas of human life, such as clothing, history, food, and buildings. Each chapter discusses a general topic, similar to those found in an encyclopedia, as listed below:

After the final chapter, there is a table of contents or index, followed by an afterword written in a more informal style.

Two illustrations in the sixth chapter include lines of French text. These lines are a quote from Marcel Proust’s book À la recherche du temps perdu: Albertine disparue (In Search of Lost Time: Albertine Gone). The words scattered on the floor in the illustration are also from the same book.

Editions

The original edition was published in two volumes:

Two years later, a single-volume edition was published in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands:

The editions from the 1980s were not available for sale for several years. In 1993, Franco Maria Ricci published an expanded, single-volume edition:

In 2006, Rizzoli published an expanded edition in Italy. This version included more illustrations and a preface written by the author:

In 2013, Rizzoli released a second revised edition. They also published a limited, signed, and numbered "deluxe" edition. This version had 300 copies printed in Italian and 300 in English:

In 2016, a wall calendar based on Codex Seraphinianus for the year 2017 was published by Universe Publishing:

In 2021, Rizzoli released a 40th anniversary edition of Codex Seraphinianus. This edition included additional material.

Reception

Baird Searles, writing in Asimov's Science Fiction (April 1984), states that the book exists in the uncertain area between surrealism and fantasy, gaining a unique literary position because it pretends to be a nonfiction book.

Douglas Hofstadter, in Metamagical Themas, describes some illustrations as "grotesque and disturbing" and others as "very beautiful and imaginative." He notes that some people believe the book "celebrates disorder, chaos, and confusion."

American journalist Jim Dwyer observes that the work is an early criticism of the Information Age.