CODEX SERAPHINIANUS

Excerpts from 'Codex Seraphinianus'. It was written and illustrated by Italian graphic designer and architect, Luigi Serafini during the late 1970's. The Codex is a lavishly produced book that purports to be an encyclopedia for an imaginary world in a parallel universe, with copious comments in an incomprehensible language. It is written in a florid script, entirely invented and completely illegible, and illustrated with watercolor paintings. The Codex is divided into a number of sections (each with its own table of contents, the page numbers are in base-21 or base-22!) on subjects such as plants, animals, inhabitants, machines, clothing, architecture, numbers, cards, chemical analyses, labyrinth, Babel, foods... There are panoramic scenes of incomprehensible festivals, and diagrams of plumbing!
The Codex is to that imaginary world what Diderot's Encyclopedia is to ours. Obviously, Serafini was not just attempting to create a consistent alternate world. Rather, the Codex is sort of an elaborate parody of the real world.

Music by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, 'Chartered Flight' and 'Steady State'.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[milootis10]

i am just as mystified by the writing system as well as the pictures. is this the complete book?

[shivabel]

No. This is just a choice containing a little more than a half of the complete book.

[shivabel]

Dedico questo video a maddalena61

[alt1813]

Хороший полет фантазии,а тупым американцам не понять

[Sergei Vladimir]

language is it?

[0YTMan]

It's extremely bizarre and scary. Don't see these things before sleep, you will have nightmares...

[aquilla rex]

He was also inspired with a story written by Jorge Luis Borges called Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. Its basically about a strange fictional universe deprived of any form of materialism, with a psychology as a master discipline and as a mother of all sciences. Borges also used some of George Berkley's philosophical ideas, particularly those about idealism and God.

[Y0UTubeStaff]

actually dude the linguists and decoders have pretty much concluded that it is gibberish.  I bet you believe in the bible code too.

[fnersch]

Its is somewhat rare. I bought a copy of it in 1978 for $25 USD.

[fnersch]

I have a copy of this somewhat rare book and believe that Serafini was inspired by the Voynich Manuscript.

[bvgatti]

it looks to me like the images describe the beneficial qualities to plant and relation to our organs ,some depictsthe various use or means of reproduction and recycling material in allegory form..i need to be on some psychedelics to understand it better .

[Jack Wahlquist]

Hundreds of dollars, probably because it is mostly original art, and less of an actual "book" in the usual way we know. Think of it like buying a cross between a famous painting and a collector's item.

[tor8ball]

how much is this book in USD, anyone know? ;-)