Luigi Serafini (born 4 August 1949 in Rome) is an Italian artist and designer based in Milan. He is best known for creating the Codex Seraphinianus, an illustrated encyclopedia of imaginary things in what was believed to be a constructed language. This work was published in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci. Career During the 1980s Serafini worked as an architect and designer in Milan. His objects were often defined by a metalanguage aptitude, like the chairs Santa and Suspiral or the lamps and the glass for Artemide. He has created scenery, lighting and costumes for the ballet "The Jazz Calendar" by Frederick Ashton at Teatro Alla Scala and also worked for the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. He has created set designs acronyms/logos for RAI, and worked with Federico Fellini on La voce della luna. He has a laboratory of ceramics in Umbria, and exhibits his work regularly, especially in the Netherlands. He has been a visiting artist at the Banff Centre, and has exhibited at the Fondazione Mudima di Milano, the XIII Quadriennale, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (National Gallery of Modern Art) in Rome, Futurarium in Chicago, and Didael Gallery in Milan. In 2003 he made a polychrome bronze sculpture, Carpe Diem, and other bas-reliefs for the Materdei subway station in Naples. In July 2008, he completed a polychrome installation "Balançoires sans Frontières" (Altalene senza Frontiere) in Castasegna, Switzerland. In May 2007, he held an "ontological exhibition", Luna Pac, at PAC in Milan. His work has been profiled in many Italian media and art publications, Codex Seraphinianus The Codex Seraphinianus was originally released in a limited edition of 5000 copies in 1981. It has been reprinted on five occasions, first in a 1983 English language edition; then in Spanish and French in the 1990s, again in a limited number of 5000 copies each; and finally in more widely printed editions in 2006 and 2013. In 2013, Serafini also released a deluxe, signed and numbered limited edition of 600 copies. (300 in English and 300 in Italian) Roland Barthes was interested in the Codex. In 1984 Italo Calvino wrote an essay on it, which can be found in Collezione di sabbia (Sand Collection) by Mondadori. The French choreographer Philippe Decouflé was inspired by it. Douglas Hofstadter wrote about it at length. In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on 11 May 2009, Serafini stated that there