# What was the name of this weird book from the 60's or 70s?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 7, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197 "2009-01-07T06:36:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/1 "2009-01-07T06:36:05Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=500237) reminded me of this weird art project I remember reading about. It was a book who’s concept was that it was all about some weird alien culture. It has some notable pictures, one of which is a man standing on what almost looks like a small piece of asphalt, with a round shield and a toga of some kind. Also, ther were round things on his ears. There was also a series of an alligator morphing into something. I think it was the somethingorother codex.
Also, from my understanding (which might be 100% wrong,) there weren’t a lot of copies made, so there’s probably no way I could own it, right? But I at least need to know the name so it will stop bugging me.
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### Author:  [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/2 "2009-01-07T06:59:12Z")
Codex Seraphinianus, by Luigi Serafini. As you rightly recalled, it’s a super rare book, but really fascinating. It’s entirely written in a script that Serafini made up, and it hasn’t been deciphered yet (the numbering system for the pages has, though).
More info: [Codex Seraphinianus - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus)
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/3 "2009-01-07T07:01:16Z")
You are possibly thinking of the [Codex Seraphinianus](http://www.archimedes-lab.org/Serafi/C_serafini.html).
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### Author:  [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/4 "2009-01-07T07:04:23Z")
Was it really all that rare? I checked it out of the city library when I was in high school (admittedly a city of ~ 100,000 but it wasn’t considered too precious for them to let me take it out).
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### Author:  [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/5 "2009-01-07T07:22:08Z")
You might be right; there was a copy at my college’s library (although they wouldn’t let you check it out), and I didn’t go to a very big school.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/6 "2009-01-07T14:15:04Z")
15 copies for sale on Amazon. I’ve seen many books with far lower numbers available.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/7 "2009-01-07T14:43:02Z")
I own a copy. I bought the Abbeville Press edition back in '84 with money from my first job. It cost $75, IIRC, which was a lot of money for me then. I was staggered to read that copies are fetching $500 to $1000 on Amazon.
It’s the second-weirdest book I’ve ever read.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/8 "2009-01-07T15:11:05Z")
Ok, I’ll bite: what’s the weirdest? 😛
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-this-weird-book-from-the-60s-or-70s/480197/9 "2009-01-07T15:13:41Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> Ok, I’ll bite: what’s the weirdest? 😛
You don’t want to know. Trust me.
:: shudder ::