Codex seraphinianus (Latin Edition) [Unknown Binding]

Luigi Serafini (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: Latin

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: F.M. Ricci (1981)
• Language: Latin
• ISBN-10: 8821600262
• ISBN-13: 978-8821600265
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,656,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The encyclopeadia of an imaginary world, May 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Codex seraphinianus (Hardcover)

We owe this 20-year old piece of high fantasy to a Roman architect, Luigi Serafini. This is a large book of splendid, eerie illustrations of an impossible world in a parallel universe, with copious comments in an incomprehensible language in an imaginary script. A world at once familiar, inhabited as it is by humans, and hauntingly different, with its very own laws of physics, its strange fauna, its stranger flora, its unimaginable society, technology, even mathematics. The Codex Seraphinianus is to that world what Diderot's Encyclopaedia is to ours, only lavishly and artistically illustrated. A feast for the eyes, a tease for the brain, to which you will find yourselves drawn again and again, and again, in ever renewed fascination. It is a particular joy in the Italian edition (published by Franco Maria Ricci of Milan) if you can afford the outrageous price -- some US$250: hand-made paper, a hard-cover bound in black silk in a box clad in black silk, such luxuries do not come cheaply

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the most inventive graphic work of the 20th Century, May 4, 2004

By 

D. Fineman "[e-mail]" (L. A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Codex Seraphinianus (Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

An encyclopedia of an imaginary world akin to ours but both more beautiful and less intelligible that forces the reader/viewer to re-think the methods by which we try to make sense of things. An encyclopedia is a synoptic version of the order by which we attempt to see the world. Such books reflect a "scientific" method which has ordered sight especially since the enlightenment but back to the taxonomies of Aristotle. This volume alludes to our desire to place sensation into category but offers, tacitly, other criteria of analogy and relation that undo the habits of too tutored thought. PS A 1st edition is now up to 500-700$.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb work of art, but know what edition you're buying, November 16, 2011

By 

J. Parfrey (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CODEX SERAPHINIANUS (Hardcover)

There are several editions of this very expensive book. The initial printing came out in two volumes in 1981 and is very rare. Then in 1983, a single volume version was released in the USA, Germany and the Netherlands. This was followed by an "augmented edition" in 1993 that was released in Spain and France. Then, in 2006, a much cheaper version was released through Rizzoli. At least two sellers are listing 1993 "First Editions". These may be first editions of that version, but they are not first editions. Indeed, my 1983 copy (which I have no plans to sell) is actually the second version. There aren't many copies of this book available anywhere, but careful comparison shopping might yield much lower prices for these later editions.

Expectations will be served more fully if the purchaser thinks of this as a work of art rather than some unreadable book. The artist's creativity explodes off of every page, and the work's (not book's) consistency in doing this from front to back is truly amazing. Perhaps there are some disturbing images, though none have disturbed me much; but remember that this is about some society far removed and in a universe beyond the reach of our own. If you can afford the price, you'll have something you probably won't want to part with soon.

For more information on the genesis and background about the Codex, along with a simple breakdown of its sections, go to Wikipedia for a very good article.