ArchivesSpace at the University of Iowa

Scope and Contents The artist aka Luigi and Aloisius Serafini writes a text in a flowing yet indecipherable script illustrated with vibrantly colored pictures of fantastic creatures, plant life, and machines. This is an extremely unusual book for a trade edition. This book has been called "the weirdest book in the world." The Codex Seraphinianus is a book written and illustrated by the Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini during thirty months, from 1976 to 1978. The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in one of its bizzare languages, a thus-far undeciphered alphabetic writing. The Codex is divided into eleven chapters, partitioned into two sections. 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...

Scope and Contents The artist aka Luigi Serafini writes the text in a flowing yet indecipherable script and illustrates it with vibrantly colored pictures of fantastic creatures, plant life, and machines. This is an extremely unusual presentation for a trade edition book.The Codex is divided into eleven chapters, partitioned into two sections. 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. The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the...

Scope and Contents

The drawings accompanying each paragraph (one to a page), were done as a collaboration between the two authors. The text was printed with a new family of fonts designated "Glitch." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Each illustration resembles a wall with posters, handwritings, figures, and textured backgrounds. The poems are on facing pages, composed in concise, linear fashion. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Auction catalogue. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This a reprint of a unique book in an unknown edition size and carries the designation as an artist proof. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The book is an illustrated guide to 15 fruit drinks. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.