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I assume everyone knows about this book by now: I knew about the Codex way back in the 90s, from seeing a single page from it reproduced in a magazine. I was instantly hooked. at the time (I was maybe 13 or 14) I already had an interest in secret codes, foreign alphabets and rudimentary cryptography, and a single page from the codex was no less than a shock. its alphabet, illustrations and diagrams weren't just indecipherable: they were beautiful. I think I still have notebooks from way back then with my attempts at a codex-look-alike secret code, that I would have used as the alphabet in the epic sprawling sci-fi setting I would surely (!) become famous for. I can't overstate how important a - I repeat - single page from this book was for me and my choice to get into computer security years passed, and that cryptic page was no longer on my mind - but I hadn't forgotten. one day, slashdot publishes a story on the Voynich Manuscript. intrigued I look it up on wikipedia, and then on google images, and I'm promptly disappointed at how lovely the art is. but the wikipedia article links to a mysterious "Codex Seraphinianus", with a pretty sparse description that nevertheless rings a bell. I search google images and there it is: that page I remembered from almost a decade back was not a one-off, there's a whole book of them, and not a small book either! unfortunately, the codex, back in 2004, had only been printed three times, in 1981, 1983 and 1993, in limited editions rare as hen's teeth (fun fact: the first edition was published on a lark by an italian nobleman's vanity press imprint, until he got bored with publishing and - I poo poo you not - started working on a maze. the maze has since been completed and is open to the public). I was still an unemployed student living on my parents' allowance and there seemed to be no hope of getting my hands on a copy [I hadn't considered libraries] 2006 rolls around and the impossible happens: a big publisher taps Luigi Serafini for an illustrated edition of jules renard's Les Histoires Naturelles, and to drum up attention they release an expanded and  inexpensive edition (€89, or about $150 in 2017 dollars). I immediately grab a copy of both: (not my photo. and yes it's a paper herbarium) ... and I attend the press event for the launch of the new book, where I manage to get my copy of the Codex signed and dedicated by the man himself - in his signature indecipherable fantasy writing last year, they finally reprinted serafini's minor work Pulcinellopedia as well:  ... that I got ASAP, as before the reprint, the only copy I could find was in Denver CO of all places, and an obscenely expensive first edition
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Nov 30, 2017 13:21
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Gutter Phoenix posted:I've never heard of that, but it looks super cool. Thanks for the detailed story behind it too, because that's what intrigues me the most. I'll have to look into finding a copy. it's expensive but worth every penny imo. there has never been anything quite like it, and it may the highest point of serafini's career. he's been cranking out weird art for 30+ years but he's never managed to outdo himself: commitment alone sets it apart. lesser men would have stopped at a couple pages, or a dozen pages, but serafini cranked out nearly 400, as if he was making a real fake encyclopedia. and the utter meaninglessness of it all is a magical thing, you open it and suddenly you're a toddler who can't read nor make sense of the world
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Dec 1, 2017 19:53
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BrutalistMcDonalds posted:Also seems rather racist in my view, as Coren mimics Amin's accent and speech patterns in the text to make light of him. tbf actual african pidgin does look superficially "funny" but you can easily tell when it's a racist caricature once you've seen the real deal
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May 3, 2018 23:00
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