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
> Humans generating random numbers
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
I own a copy, never fails to weird people out when they flip through. Highly recommend.
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.
XKCD's explanation: [1]
The Voynich manuscript is different from the Codex Seraphinianus. The former's authorship is unknown. The latter's author is still alive.
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.
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.
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.
The first edition is expensive. The current edition is ~$90 for a full color hardcover (expensive but not ruinius if you really want it)
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.
Just wait until you see an original print of the nice and accurate prophesies of Agnes nutter or the bugger all bible …