Update 2021: It's been several years since I've updated this site, and do not foresee that I will any time in the near future. The Codex is a lovely art book, and although it is disappointing that there is no secret meaning behind the cipher, perhaps that actually spares a deeper disappointment if there were, and the decipherment turns out to be mundane! Enjoy the resources found on this site. 

Be well, 
KXF

Update: October 23, 2013: I have not abandoned the efforts here, but have been waylaid by several academic duties as of late. I am pleased to announce that Rizzoli will be releasing a new edition of the Codex on October 29th, replete with 11 new plates by Serafini using the original prismalo pencils. I've had a sneak peek of it, and it looks gorgeous. The price point will also be much more affordable at around US$75. My aim is to get back into the Codex, and possibly to construct one of my own. I have already constructed a Serafinian font for typing on most word processors.
Most Recent Update: November 1, 2012 General housekeeping and additions

Editions

Cover of the 2006 Rizzoli Edition

Cover of the Abbeville Edition

Cover of the Franco Maria Ricci edition [French edition with introduction by Italo Calvino]

Codex Seraphinianus
Introduction

The CODEX SERAPHINIANUS was illustrated by Luigi Serafini, and published in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci. My relation to the book is in many failed attempts to decipher it, and in making it a plot item in THE INFINITE ATROCITY. I was introduced to it in 1999 by a brilliant and esoteric university chum who was into the Kabbalah and Robert Anton Wilson. He "lured" me to the university library, and there in the dusty alcove where they keep the oversized folios, he plucked what I now would recognize as a first FMR edition. 

I have made this site to function as a digital repository for notes, observations, musings, charts, and other matter pertaining to this most enigmatic of books, the sort one would find in a Borges story.

I update this page about on occasion; less when my academic commitments are heavier. Since I'll be "filling in" text somewhat sporadically over time, I will simply add the updates to content as they become available.

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Just as a "let's see if I can do it" exercise, I did construct a True-Type Font (TTF) for both the majuscules and the minuscules. The glyph size for the majuscules alone is about 648. I have constructed one for numbers, basic majuscules, and just finished one for the minuscules. I'd be grateful to anyone with Java or like skills to help me construct a tiny English to Codex generator here on this site (this does NOT suggest any one-to-one correspondence between the Serafini cipher and the Latin alphabet). Given the size of the Serafini alphabet, I would have to construct multiple .ttf files - something I wish I had more time to do.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be supplying a list of Serafini links and further analysis, including a few articles. Stay tuned. 

It should not come as a surprise that someone in the worldwide warren of the Internet would have scanned a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus and posted it online. I do encourage people to purchase a physical copy, which is perhaps the only way to do the book justice. With respect to Luigi Serafini and copyright law, I will not be posting images of the book here except in providing a close-up detail (not the whole image) for the purposes of analysis and discussion.

Next>>

Table of Contents

INTRO
GLYPHS (more to come)
ANALYSIS (under construction)
LINKS
"LOST" CODEX PAGES

Just some background tunes

The script above is my emulation of the Serafinian minuscule writing and not scanned from the book itself.