From the intriguing mind behind Codex Seraphinianus comes this beautifully illustrated tribute to the famed Neapolitan character Pulcinella (or "Punch" as he is referred to in English). This short monograph on Pulcinella is conceived as a extension of the Codex Seraphinianus, an encyclopedia filled with variations and fantasies on a theme. Pulcinellopaedia Seraphiniana contains over one hundred extraordinary graphite illustrations with scarlet accents, some of which are depicted in comic-strip style. Conceived as a musical Suite, it is divided into nine scenes with an intermission. It features the oddly surreal and globally recognized character, whose origins have been lost in the mists of the time. An ancestor of Pulcinella was certainly Maccus, the protagonist of the Atellanae Fabulae, very popular farces in ancient Rome, but it was in the early seventeenth-century that the character assumed the name and costume that we all know. Distinguished by a long nose and typically dressed in white with a black mask, Pulcinella is often depicted in various kinds of misadventures and singing about love, hunger, and money. As he famously did in the Codex, Luigi Serafini, has created Pulcinellopaedia Seraphiniana in a unique language all its own, and has filled it with fascinating and mysterious illustrations that will no doubt prompt devotees to obsessively try to decipher the artist’s intention. Written by Serafini’s imaginative coauthor and alter ego "P. Cetrulo," who represents Pulcinella himself, the book artfully presents the struggles of a rebellious antihero who must come to grips with the challenges of everyday life. Originally, a book about Pulcinella and his world appeared in 1984, after Serafini’s involvement with the 1982 Carnival of Venice, the first revival of the famous festivity after two centuries of silence. Now more than three decades later, this new edition has been extensively revised and includes a new afterword by the author. Like its predecessor, the original edition became immensely sought after and highly valuable, fetching more than one thousand dollars if book collectors were lucky enough to get their hands on a copy. All fans of Serafini’s work will treasure this volume. Rizzoli will also publish a deluxe limited edition with a signed and numbered print.

Unlike the original Goetia, or Lesser Key of Solomon, the GOETIAN CODEX has been written to be more readily useable by the practitioner. Information previously scattered about the text has been collected, organized, and presented in a more user-friendly format. Each of the 72 prime sigils for the Geotic spirits has been meticulously redrawn to remove any imperfections resulting from years of copying and reprint of the original text. These sigils, combined with the collected information, have been organized alphabetically for easy reference. Additionally, a series of appendices have been added to include a list of the demons by rank, a collection of their known aliases, a rewritten conjuration and banishment, and a collection of instructions translated from the steles found in one of the source texts. The Hexagram, Pentacle, and Circle of Solomon have also been remastered, and are included within the appendices. For any student of demonology or the occult, this book is a must-have.

A delightful variation on the long tradition of bestiary writing, Jules Renard's short verse and prose poems have captured the imagination of readers and artists since they were originally written in 1894, with Ravel famously setting five of them to music. Presented in a new version by acclaimed translator Richard Stokes, this sumptuously produced volume will captivate and enchant new generations of readers the world over.

An illustrated survey of artist hoaxes, including impersonations, fabula, cryptoscience, and forgeries, researched and written by an expert "fictive-art" practitioner. The shift from the early information age to our 'infocalypse' era of rampant misinformation has given rise to an art form that probes this confusion, foregrounding wild creativity as a way to reframe assumptions about both fiction and art in contemporary culture. At its center, this "fictive art" (LaFarge's term) is secured as fact by employing the language and display methods of history and science. Using typically evidentiary objects such as documentary photographs and videos, presumptively historical artifacts and relics, didactics, lectures, events, and expert opinions in technical language, artists create a constellation of manufactured evidence attesting to the artwork's central narrative. This dissimulation is temporary, with a clear "tell" often surprisingly revealed in a self-outing moment. With all its attendant consequences of mistrust, outrage, and rejection, this genre of art with a sting in its tale is a radical form whose time has come.

The Codex Bodley has long been recognized as one of the most important Mixtec manuscripts. Painted shortly before the Spanish Conquest of Mexico (1521), in the Mixtec region (state of Oaxaca), it is an excellent example of native Mixtec pictorial historiography in all its complexity. Because of its detailed information on genealogical relationships and dated events, it is a fundamental source for the study of precolonial Mixtec writing and history, from approximately 900 AD till the Spanish conquest (1521).For the first time, the entire manuscript is reproduced in a handy, single volume format. The commentary, based on many years of research on this manuscript and related documents, both in archives and in the Mixtec region itself, makes it possible to read the figurative paintings as a narrative text. Beginning with the history of the manuscript the author then discusses the main characteristics of Mixtec pictography before turning to the narrative of the manuscript, in a page-by-page explanatory reading of the pictograms and their significance. Highly illustrated, this is an essential text for all readers with an interest in pre-colonial Mexican history, art, and culture.

In Vietnam the motorbike is the main mode of transport, not only for people but for every imaginable and unimaginable product and produce. Without the motorbike the economy would come to a halt. Bikes of Burden shows in 148 stunning, full color photographs how the motorbikes, the drivers and their loads ride around the cities and countryside in acts that defy your wildest imagination.

A sports journalist, sent to a Midlands town on a weekly assignment, finds himself confronted by ghosts from the past when he disembarks at the railway station. Memories of one of his best, most trusted friends, a tragically young victim of cancer, begin to flood through his mind as he attempts to go about the routine business of reporting a football match. B S Johnson’s famous ‘book in a box’, in which the chapters are presented unbound, to be read in any order the reader chooses, is one of the key works of a novelist now undergoing an enormous revival of interest. The Unfortunates is a book of passionate honesty and dark, courageous humour: a meditation on death and a celebration of friendship which also offers a remarkably frank self-portrait of its author.