SERAFINI, Luigi. Codex Seraphinianus. Milan: Franco Maria Ricci. 1981.
Two volumes, folio. Original black silk, lettered in gilt and with mounted colour illustrations to front covers, patterned endpapers, original publisher's drop-back boxes with printed labels to spines; pp. 186; 189 (paginated in Seraphinian), colour illustrations throughout; loosely inserted printed leaflet with introductory text by Franco Maria Ricci (see below)); light wear to extremities of the silk bindings, otherwise fine.
First edition, number 820 of a total print run of 4000 copies, signed by the artist on the limitation page at the end of volume two.
This is an illustrated encyclopaedia of an imaginary parallel universe written in an invented and incomprehensible language and writing system with a cornucopia of detailed colour drawings of fantastic flora, fauna, mechanics, anatomy, food, clothing, mythology and abstract concepts. This artist's book challenges the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction, classification systems and the medium of the book itself. Cryptologists have tried to crack the code to no avail. Just like the the Voynich Manuscript the book has a lasting mysterious appeal and has been reprinted several times in various countries.
Luigi Serafini (born in 1949) is an Italian artist and designer, who early in his career moved in counter-cultural circles in the USA and experimented with mescaline. This book, which took Serafini three years to produce, has made him famous overnight.
The loosely inserted elusive leaflet, with text in Italian, French and English "is not intended as an introduction, but as a kind of accompanying voucher. The reader is therefore advised to tear it up, in order to avoid contaminating the silent wonders of the Orbis Pictus Seraphinianus with the alphabetic plague".
SKU: 2124120