Rizzoli, 2006. Hardcover in cream-colored illustrated boards (with gold-colored bookmark/tassle bound in - as issued; and the 38 page Decodex in Italian housed in the pocket inside rear cover - as issued). First Edition Thus, First Printing. The ever mysterious Codex Seraphinianus by Italian artist Luigi Serafini (1949-) reveals an illustrated encyclopaedia of an alternate universe written in an imaginary language and illustrated phantasmagorically throughout. Serafini has alluded that it is perhaps all just the thoughts of a cat passed through his hand. Resembling a manuscript with copious hand-drawn, colored-pencil illustrations of bizarre and fantastical flora, fauna, anatomies, fashions, and foods, it has been compared to the still undeciphered Voynich manuscript (among others), In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles on 11 May 2009, 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; 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. This copy is additionally SIGNED by Serafini with a beautiful, lenghty inscription in the imaginary language of the codex and signed by Serafini in the extreme lower, right-hand corner of the title page (just under the words "Mamma Mia" in parentheses - perhaps alluding to the length of his own inscription!?). BOOK CONDITION: Fine; a solid, tight, clean copy showing light rubbing and soiling to covers. A very rare, HAND-SIGNED and BEAUTIFULLY INSCRIBED copy.

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