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An Introduction to the Codex Seraphinianus, the Strangest Book Ever Published

101 points by vinhnx 5 days ago | 24 comments

wumms 20 hours ago

Writing system [0]: "In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles on 11 May 2009 [1], 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 [2]; 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. However, the book's page-numbering system was decoded by Allan C. Wechsler and Bulgarian linguist Ivan Derzhanski, as being a variation of base 21."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus#Writing_sy...

[1] I could not find a source for that talk

[2] Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_writing

Aerbil313 9 hours ago

Wow, weird to see it's a documented phenomenon. I thought it was just me. At times I can talk, write or make sounds in a manner that is not intentional nor voluntary. Though it's nothing psychic, it's just a weird crossover of my ADHD and dissocation.

avadodin 14 hours ago

> Humans generating random numbers

marzchipane 8 hours ago

Funnily enough just yesterday I spent an hour or so looking through a copy in a library! I took some photos, you can look through them here: https://marzchipane.com/reviews/books/codex_seraphinianus.md

The illustrations are gorgeous, and they've been floating around the internet for some time, e.g. the one with the pairs of fish which look like eyes.

omoikane 7 hours ago

I have a second edition. I got it because there was some review that portrayed it as a mysterious creepy thing, but it wasn't that creepy at all. The art is well done and fun to look at, and it's a fine balance of something that you feel like you have figured out but just slightly evades your understanding.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LLFrSW9XQLUqc8348

I paid $110 for it in 2013. They put out a new edition every few years with a few extra pages added, so I am sure my copy has declined in value since.

ggm 23 hours ago

Copies hung around my partners secondhand bookshop for years. This was in the 1980s. Properly shelved under "esoterica"

1st Ed. Now worth $6,000 oh well.

oniony 11 hours ago

I have a 2nd edition. When I went on holiday in Italy in about ten years ago I noticed a copy for sale in a board game shop.

giraffe_lady 22 hours ago

My local (but big city) library had a circulating copy until about five years ago. It mostly stayed in my home, once or twice a year someone else would request it and I'd give it back for a few months. It's in library use only now but I took great care of it lol.

ggm 16 hours ago

The only book less likely to be sold was "voyage to Arcturus" which is the worst most depressing Sci fi fantasy ever. That, or future shock by Alvin toffler.

flir 12 hours ago

I've been in second hand bookshops that sprinkled their copies of The Da Vinci Code around the shelves so it wasn't so obvious how many they had.

(When I was a kid, Dennis Wheatley paperbacks were everywhere. Now I never see them. They were pretty cheap paper, maybe they literally fell apart).

ggm 42 minutes ago

A lot of older paperbacks seemed to use a lower grade of woodchip fibre and truly awful glue. Admittedly I live in the subtropics which is very unkind to books but it's my airport thrillers, cheap scifi and old penguin and pelican books.

fumeux_fume 9 hours ago

I sold my first edition almost 10 years ago to fund (partially) my unemployment during a career transition to data science. A couple years, ago my brother bought me a nice reissue for Christmas without ever knowing I once owned a copy. Odd how some things will make their way to you in the world.

peterldowns 21 hours ago

I own a copy, never fails to weird people out when they flip through. Highly recommend.

inasio 22 hours ago

I have a nice copy, at least as of a few years ago you can get them for relatively cheap. I've been meaning to put scans of the text into OpenCV and play a bit to see if there's an underlying code. The number system in the page numbers has been cracked as far as I know.

zafka 21 hours ago

Hmmm, Now I need to find out where my copy is hiding. I really need to reorganize the books again. I savored this for a while, but have not gone through the entire book yet. Sort of like War & Peace - books that everyone must read before they die, and I am saving them for insurance.

jonhohle 10 hours ago

I read that last phrase as if one were on their death bed and called out to the grim reaper, “Wait! I haven’t read War & Peace yet!” At which point the reaper sighs and vows to return when you’ve finished.

Animats 19 hours ago

XKCD's explanation: [1]

[1] https://xkcd.com/593/

quuxplusone 18 hours ago

The Voynich manuscript is different from the Codex Seraphinianus. The former's authorship is unknown. The latter's author is still alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Serafini_(artist)

wewewedxfgdf 23 hours ago

It is so strange that books like this cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars to buy.

You might think the publisher would ........ publish some to sell.

pavel_lishin 23 hours ago

There might not be that much demand. My understanding is that a good printing of a book will only make money back in pretty large amounts; if there's only a thousand weirdos in the world who want to buy it (and I'm one of those thousand), it'll only barely break even, if that.

Actually, I'm wrong, there is a newly published version that costs under a hundred bucks.

habitue 22 hours ago

The first edition is expensive. The current edition is ~$90 for a full color hardcover (expensive but not ruinius if you really want it)

summa_tech 21 hours ago

And honestly pretty great, unless you are a collector. It's well done.

The book itself is beautiful and haunting. But I don't think it's for everyone... I have a copy, and I gifted one to someone in my family who really didn't understand the point.

benrutter 12 hours ago

I think this is sort of just what publishing looks like for super niche books. Academic books are a rip off for other reasons too, but they also have the issue that only a very small number of copies are expected to sell, smaller runs means comparatively bigger overheads, means more expensive books.

golem14 17 hours ago

Just wait until you see an original print of the nice and accurate prophesies of Agnes nutter or the bugger all bible …