Skip to main content

Codex Seraphinianus Volumes I & II / Serafini, Luigi., 1981

 Item
Identifier: CC-02467-2507

  • Staff Only
  • Please navigate to collection organization to place requests.

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 family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today..., The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly plant-eating mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae..., Rhinoceros , often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species"”the Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros"”are.... Birds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the, 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. Physics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force... and chemistry. Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions..., 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 ane Indigenous peoples. The term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number... 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 architectureArchitectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....EncyclopediaThe Codex Seraphinianus is a book written and illustrated by the Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi SerafiniLuigi SerafiniLuigi Serafini is an Italian artist, architect and designer. He is best known for creating the Codex Seraphinianus, an illustrated encyclopedia of imaginary things in a constructed language... 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 worldWorldWorld is a highly common name for the planet Earth, but it was originally used to mean the sum of human civilization living on it, specifically human experience, history, or the 'human condition' in general...., written in one of its languageLanguageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" "” the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...s, a thus-far undeciphered alphabetic writing.StructureThe 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 horseHorseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today..., hippopotamusHippopotamusThe hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly plant-eating mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae..., rhinocerosRhinocerosRhinoceros , often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species"”the Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros"”are..., birdBirdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...s, 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 physicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force... and chemistryChemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions..., 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 aboriginalIndigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number... 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 architectureArchitectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....The illustrations are often surreal. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.... A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation... of things in our world: bleeding fruit; a plant that grows into roughly the shape of a chair and is subsequently made into one; a lovemaking couple that metamorphoses into a crocodile. A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...; etc. Others depict odd, apparently senseless machines, often with a delicate appearance, kept together by tiny filaments. There are also illustrations readily recognizable, as maps or human faces. On the other hand, especially in the "physics" chapter, many images look almost completely abstract. Practically all figures are brightly coloured and rich in detail.The writing system (possibly a false writing system). False writing systems are artificially constructed alphabets or scripts used to convey a degree of concealed verisimilitude...appears modelled on ordinary Western-style writing systems (left-to-right writing in rows; an alphabet with uppercase and lowercase letters, some of which double as numerals) but is much more curvilinear, not unlike cursive Georgian language. Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...in appearance. Some letters appear only at the beginning or at the end of words, a feature shared with SemiticI n linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages....The language of the codex has defied complete analysis by linguistsLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning... for decades. The number system used for numbering the pages, however, has been cracked (apparently independently) by Allan C. Wechsler and Bulgarian linguist Ivan Derzhanski, among others. It is a variation of base 21.. In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles, Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. The Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles is a book collecting and bibliophile club run by, and primarily for, students at Oxford University. It was founded in 1950 by a group of young bibliophiles headed by John Granger, Bent Juel-Jensen and R. John Rickett, and the first meeting was held in... held on May 8th 2009, Serafini has stated that the script of the Codex is asemic writing. Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means "having no specific semantic content". With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would..., that his own experience in writing it was closely similar to automatic writing. Automatic writing is the process or production of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. Practitioners say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written...., and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey to the 'reader' is the sensation that children feel in front of books they cannot yet understand, although they see that their writing does make sense for grown-ups. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1981

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (2 hard cover books + sheet (374 pages) in covers (collaged) + 2 boxes (museum board)) ; 35.4 x 23.5 x 1.9 cm (book) + 37 x 25.3 x 3.8 cm (box)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

shelf alphabeti

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: Milan, Italy : Franco Maria Ricci. Signed by: Luigi Serafini (c.- colophon). Nationality of creator: Italian. General: About 4000 total copies. About 3456 number copy. General: Added by: CONV; updated by: MARVIN.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

Contact:
125 W. Washington St.
Main Library
Iowa City Iowa 52242 United States
319-335-5921