The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in one of its languages, a thus-far undeciphered alphabetic writing.
The Codex is divided into eleven chapters, partitioned into two sections. The first section appears to describe the natural world, dealing with flora, fauna, and physics. The second deals with the humanities, the various aspects of human life: clothing, history, cuisine, architecture and so on.
The illustrations are often surreal parodies of things in our world: bleeding fruit; a plant that grows into roughly the shape of a chair and is subsequently made into one; a lovemaking couple that metamorphoses into a crocodile; etc.
Serafini has stated that the script of the Codex is asemic, that his own experience in writing it was closely similar to automatic writing, and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey to the 'reader' is the sensation that children feel in front of books they cannot yet understand, although they see that their writing does make sense for grown-ups.
I'd love to see a copy of this book - I found the original idea for this post here - do a Google search to find many more images ...
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Surreal is quite an inadequate word...
ReplyDeleteUncanny...I' m rereading Down below. Surrealist Painter Leonora Carrinton's account of her breakdown shortly after her then lover, Max Ernst was interned by the Nazi's. She Lost touch with our so-called reality and while commited and recieving cardiozal, she created a map of symbols and locations of the asylum to which she attributed metaphorical symbolism that coalesced with her own ego..and so on..anyhow much like this fellow..whew did I make any sense?
ReplyDeleteYeah, indeed Dave ...
ReplyDeleteHaha Aurora ... yes, you made sense, much like this fellow ... :) ...
... I'm sure I could make sense of the Codex too ... that's why I'd like to see a copy ...
Thanks for the comments people ...
Leonardo of our time? Wow this is fascinating. If you broke the code, you can confirm with the author. Is the book sold at the store or on Amazon.com? You can try Amazon and I believe they'll deliver, all the way to Nam.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. It is okay for light and easy, sleek and greasy reading.
To tell the truth Ocean Girl, I haven't read a book in ages ...
ReplyDelete... according to comments from the original source it is available on Amazon ... starting price $500 ... way beyond what I could pay for a book ...