general encyclopedic topic, as follows: Types of flora: strange flowers, trees that uproot themselves and migrate, etc. Fauna (animals), including surreal variations of the horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and birds An apparently separate kingdom of odd bipedal creatures Physics and chemistry (generally considered the most abstract, enigmatic chapter) Bizarre machines and vehicles The humanities: biology, sexuality, aboriginal peoples, including some examples with plant life and tools (e.g. pens, wrenches) grafted onto the human body History: people (some only vaguely human) of unknown significance, with their times of birth and death; scenes of historical and possibly religious significance; burial and funereal customs The Codex's writing system (which is to say, the – or probably, a – writing system of the world (if a world it is) from which the codex originates, or which it documents), including punctuation marks, the text being written, and experiments performed upon the text Food, dining practices, garments Bizarre games, including cards, board games and athletic sports Architecture After the last chapter is a table of contents or index, followed by an apparent afterword whose writing is more casually rendered. Two plates in the sixth chapter contain lines of French text, a quote from Marcel Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu: Albertine disparue" (In Search of Lost Time: Albertine Gone). The words scattered on the floor of the illustration are from the same book. Editions The original edition was issued in two volumes: Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus, Milano: Franco Maria Ricci [I segni dell'uomo, 27–28], 1981, 127+127 pp., 108+128 plates, + . Two years later, a single-volume edition was issued in the United States, in Germany and in the Netherlands: 1st American edition, New York: Abbeville Press, 1983, 370 pp., ; Munich: Prestel, 1983, 370 pp., ; Amsterdam: Meulenhoff/Landshoff, 1983, . The 1980s editions were out of print for several years before Franco Maria Ricci published an augmented, single-volume edition in 1993: French augmented edition, with a preface by Italo Calvino, transl. by Yves Hersant and Geneviève Lambert, Milano: Franco Maria Ricci [Les signes de l'homme, 18], 1993, 392 pp., ; Spanish augmented edition, with a preface by Italo Calvino, transl. by C. Alonso, Milano: Franco Maria Ricci [Los signos del hombre, 15], 1993, 392 pp., . In 2006, Rizzoli published an expanded, but less expensive, edition in Italy. It features additional illustrations and a preface by the author: Milano: Rizzoli, 2006, 384 pp., ; Milano: Rizzoli,