Codex Seraphinianus (Luigi Serafini)
"The Codex is an encyclopedia in manuscript with copious hand-drawn, colored-pencil illustrations of bizarre and fantastical flora, fauna, anatomies, fashions, and foods. It has been compared to the still undeciphered Voynich manuscript, the story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges, and the artwork of M. C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch. The illustrations are often surreal parodies of things in the real world, such as a bleeding fruit, a plant that grows into roughly the shape of a chair and is subsequently made into one, and a copulating couple who metamorphose into an alligator. Others depict odd, apparently senseless machines, often with delicate appearances and bound by tiny filaments. Some illustrations are recognizable as maps or human faces, while others (especially in the "physics" chapter) are mostly or totally abstract. Nearly all of the illustrations are brightly coloured and highly detailed.
The false writing system appears modeled on Western writing systems, with left-to-right writing in rows and an alphabet with uppercase and lowercase letters, some of which double as numerals. Some letters appear only at the beginning or end of words, similar to Semitic writing systems. The curvilinear letters are rope- or thread-like, with loops and even knots, and are somewhat reminiscent of Sinhala script. In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles […] Serafini stated that there is no meaning behind the Codex's script, which is asemic; that his experience in writing it was similar to automatic writing; and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey was the sensation children feel with books they cannot yet understand, although they see that the writing makes sense for adults.
Take a look for yourself"
Voynich Manuscript (Unknown)
"Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. It's a strange code describing alchemical formulae and unknown life forms, and no one understands it. It's a mystery waiting for you to lose yourself in its pages, as Voynich himself was lost. There's an episode of Mystery Files about it!"
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Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus
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The written word is alive too (you just have to prick it with a hatpin to see it start to bleed), but it enjoys its autonomy and physicality, it can become three-dimensional, polychrome, can rise up from the page hanging on to balloons, or drop on to it in parachutes. There are words that, in order to stay attached to the page, have to be sewn on to it, the thread passing through the loops in those letters that have spaces in them. And if you look at the writing with a lens, the thin sliver of ink turns out to be permeated with a thick flow of meaning: like a motorway, like a swarming crowd, like a river brimming with fish.
Italo Calvino on Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus, tr. Martin McLaughlin, from “The Encyclopedia of a Visionary,” Collection of Sand (Mariner Books, 2013; orig. pub. in Italian, 1984)
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Quel tipo del quale eri cotta all'università che se lo vedi dopo dieci anni pensi "Minchia è ancora fregno come allora se non di più", per me è lo stesso con il Codex Seraphinianus.
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- Luigi Serafini, Pagina del Codex Seraphinianus, 1977 disegno a matita colorata e inchiostro di china su carta pubblicato nel 1981, Franco Maria Ricci Editore, Parma
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i FINALLY got a scanner and now i have a picture of this that does it justice!!
"cloud community" (2022) alcohol marker on paper
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