Hortulus Litterarum ossia la Magia delle Lettere
Una divagazione e venticinque variazioni sui segni, sui significati e sui simboli
The aim of the project was the ideation and design of a visual book based on the reinterpretation of an esoteric sage Hortulus Litterarum ossia la Magia delle Lettere written by Paolo Santarcangeli in 1965. It's a poetic research that touches different disciplines and fields: anthropology, mathematics, sociology, religions, mysticisms,
and esotericism. The book deals with letters' history, origin, and their power to give life
and death. The visual book in object, is an editorial artifact that is in its total composition able to restore innovative and more experiential readability to the reader (where the images must be read and the text must be looked at). The theme was calligraphy, understood as an analogical action that allows you to impress the fleeting emotion that guides the calligrapher's hand at the moment in which he acts.
Attention was brought to the most esoteric and mystical aspect of the book. The purpose of the project is to enrich, complete, and emphasize the original work by integrating with signs and symbols when mentioned. A visual configuration is thus formed, an iconographic essay in which the text requires to be looked at and images to be read.
164pp
150mm x 210mm
Fedrigoni, Century Cotton Wove 280gsm
Fedrigoni, Century Cotton Wove 280gsm
Cordenons, Natural Evolution 120gsm
Printed in Italy by Morganti Milano
Printed in Italy by Morganti Milano
Politecnico di Milano
BA Communication Design
Final Synthesis Design Studio
Supervisor
Mario Piazza
2021
