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One thing literary history shows us is that the confusion and immaturity of people in the Middle Ages mirror the present day. From perplexing codes to 13th-century penis doodles in the margins of sacred texts, history often feels like a never-ending high school drama. These books cover the entire span of written history, and they're all completely strange.
10. Codex Seraphinianus
Codex Seraphinianus, written in an incomprehensible language and adorned with bizarre, fantastical illustrations, stands as one of the strangest encyclopedias ever conceived. Published by Italian architect Luigi Serafini in 1981, it was originally presented as a factual, scientific tome. Yet, the absurd and otherworldly nature of its images immediately exposes it as something far from scientific.
The entire book is entirely handwritten, with illustrations painstakingly crafted and colored by Serafini himself, a process that took him two years to complete. Despite years of scholarly attempts to decode it, the only conclusion we’ve reached is that 'Seraphinianus' is simply a variant of Serafini’s surname. As for its language, the 'alphabet' consists of about two dozen unique characters and bears no connection to any other known human creation.
9. The Book Of Soyga
On March 10, 1552, mathematician John Dee engaged in a conversation with an angel. A devout believer in both science and the mystical, Dee's life was an intricate balance between the physical world and the supernatural. Having already built the largest library in London, Dee focused much of his intellectual energy on the enigmatic and anonymous Book of Soyga.
The book was a puzzle—over 40,000 letters filled its pages, but they were arranged in such a disordered manner that it seemed almost unintelligible. As Dee labored to decode the message, he began to uncover that the Soyga was actually a detailed catalog of magical spells. The greatest enigma lay in the final 36 pages, each filled with a series of letters—an intricate cipher that Dee was never able to solve. To uncover the truth, he turned to forces beyond our world.
During a journey to continental Europe, Dee sought the assistance of a spiritual medium to summon the Archangel Uriel. Dee began the conversation by asking if the book had any meaning. Uriel responded by revealing that the Book of Soyga had originally been given to Adam in the Garden of Eden. When Dee requested help with translating the tables, Uriel explained that he lacked the 'necessary clearance'; only Archangel Michael held the key to the secret.
Dee never succeeded in reaching Archangel Michael, and after his death, the book vanished for almost 500 years. Today, there are two surviving copies of the Book of Soyga—one in the British Library and the other in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. The mysterious code remains unsolved.
8. Prodigiorum Ac Ostentorum Chronicon
Also known as the Chronicle of Portents and Prophecies, this book was penned in 1557 by the French humanist Conrad Lycosthenes. Designed like an encyclopedia, it chronicles extraordinary events from the time of Adam and Eve onward. However, unlike the fantastical Codex Seraphinianus, Lycosthenes’s Chronicle was more grounded in reality, primarily focusing on actual historical occurrences. Between the well-documented events like disasters, floods, and meteor showers (including Halley’s comet), the book also delves into accounts of sea monsters, UFOs, and various biblical themes.
The Chronicle was immensely detailed, containing over 1,000 original woodcut illustrations depicting the phenomena it described. Several copies still exist, typically found on rare book websites, where they are often priced at several thousand dollars.
7. The Ripley Scrolls
When Isaac Newton ventured into the mystical domain of alchemy, he primarily turned to the works of Sir George Ripley, a 15th-century writer whose writings on the subject have had a lasting influence. His most famous and enduring work is undoubtedly the enigmatic Ripley Scrolls.
The scrolls serve as a pictorial recipe for crafting the mythical philosopher’s stone, a legendary substance said to transform lead into gold. While the original Ripley Scrolls have been lost to history, several artists in the 16th century recreated the alchemical work, and 23 of these reproductions still exist. Each copy is unique, as they were all hand-crafted. The largest scroll measures an impressive 6 meters (19.5 ft) in length, covered with a complex tapestry of illustrations.
6. The Story Of The Vivian Girls
While working as a janitor in downtown Chicago, Henry Darger kept a secret—he was crafting one of the most strange and intricate storybooks ever conceived. Upon his death in 1973, Darger’s landlord stumbled upon a 15,000-page manuscript titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
The book was enormous, an epic spanning more than nine million words and featuring over 300 watercolor illustrations, most of which were made by collaging images from magazines and newspapers, then tracing over them. Some of the final illustrations were spread out across massive sheets of paper, measuring over 3 meters (10 ft) wide. The exact amount of time Darger spent on the book remains unclear, but it’s believed to have taken decades. He lived in a small, single-room apartment for more than 40 years and never shared his monumental project with anyone.
5. Popol Vuh
Describing Popol Vuh as 'bizarre' might not be entirely accurate; in its proper context, it’s as conventional as any other book of mythology or history. Yet, when viewed from an outsider's perspective, it’s truly awe-inspiring. Written over centuries by an unknown number of authors, Popol Vuh spans the full scope of Mayan history and mythology, faithfully transcribed from the voices of the 16th-century Maya.
In the early 1700s, a Dominican priest named Francisco Ximenez ventured deep into the heart of the Mayan civilization and began transcribing Popol Vuh, meaning 'Book of the People.' Ximenez’s original manuscript was written in two columns—one for the original K’iche’, the language of the Guatemalan Maya, and the other in Spanish. Thanks to this bilingual format, we still have a relatively faithful version of the stories, despite centuries of translations.
The book itself covers a wide range of topics, from the creation of the world to the events leading up to the time it was written, serving as the Mayan equivalent to the Bible.
4. The Rohonc Codex
Among the most enigmatic books still in existence is the Rohonczi Codex, often written as Rohonc Codex. Not only is its meaning completely unknown, but its origins remain a mystery as well. In the early 19th century, the manuscript was donated to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the city of Rohonc, but after that, its history becomes unclear.
One of the key reasons the Rohonc Codex has eluded deciphering for so long lies in its peculiar alphabet. While most alphabets typically feature between 20 and 40 characters, making them relatively easier to crack, the Rohonc Codex uses nearly 200 distinct symbols across its 448 pages. Despite numerous scholars attempting to decode it, no one has been able to agree on a translation, nor even pinpoint a general region where it might have originated. Speculations range from Hungary to Romania to India.
It’s such an impressive code that scholars in the 19th century concluded it must be a hoax, though nowadays it is regarded as authentic. If you're feeling adventurous, you can access all the pages online.
3. The Smithfield Decretals
Formally known as the Decretals of Gregory IX, this is a compilation of canonical law commissioned in the 13th century by Pope Gregory IX. While such collections were relatively common at the time, what sets these decretals apart are the unusual illustrations that accompany them.
The Smithfield Decretals were crafted as an illuminated manuscript, a style that combined detailed illustrations with ornate calligraphy. The process was meticulous and costly, as each drawing had to be done by hand. While this was not uncommon for early religious texts, it added a level of grandeur to the work.
But as you explore the extensive illustrations in the Smithfield Decretals, you’ll uncover some truly strange and unsettling images. Throughout the pages, you'll find disturbing depictions such as giant rabbits decapitating humans, geese lynching a wolf, unicorns, and other bizarre scenes, like the one shown above, which is... well, take a look and see for yourself.
2. Dancing Lessons For The Advanced In Age
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age is a 1964 Czech novel by Bohumil Hrabal. It follows the story of an elderly man who approaches six women sunbathing in a city and begins talking about events from his life. While this might seem like a typical narrative, there's one major twist: The entire book consists of one long sentence. And we're not talking about something as brief as Hemingway's famed “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Hrabal’s novel stretches over 128 pages, making it just a bit shorter than The Great Gatsby.
Hrabal was known for his use of long, winding sentences in his works, a technique that allowed him to blend both humor and sorrow in a single narrative. Regarded as one of the most important Czech writers, Hrabal’s Dancing Lessons—whether in one sentence or not—has been described as “the best book you’ve never read.”
1. Codex Mendoza
The story of the Codex Mendoza is almost as dramatic as the plot of an action-packed adventure novel. After the bloody fall of the Aztec Empire, the Spaniards took control of Mexico and declared it property of the Spanish crown. They appointed Antonio de Mendoza as the first viceroy of the newly established empire. One of Mendoza’s first acts was to commission a history of the Aztec civilization, which he sent back to Spain by ship.
However, on its journey, French pirates intercepted the Spanish vessel, killed the crew, and ransacked its cargo. The Codex Mendoza was lost in the chaos but ended up in France, where it was discovered in 1553 by one of the French king’s advisors. For the next century, the Mendoza drifted across Europe, popping up occasionally before disappearing into obscurity. It wasn't until 1831 that the manuscript was rediscovered in a storage room at the Bodleian Library.
The Codex Mendoza is a richly detailed manuscript, divided into three parts. The first section traces the genealogy of the Aztec rulers, the second lists the Mexican towns that paid tribute to the Aztec empire, and the third depicts the daily life of the Aztecs. The images, created by Aztec slaves under the orders of the Spanish crown, provide a rare and invaluable record. Together, the Mendoza offers the most extensive insight into the Aztec empire, making it all the more significant considering that the Spanish destroyed nearly all other Aztec records.
