the chemical wedding by christian rosencreutz: andreae + Crowley

2016

An annotated and illustrated 400th anniversary edition of the first science fiction novel and ur-text of Rosicrucianism.

The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz, a book written by Johann Valentin Andreae, was originally published in 1616, and is one of the foundational texts of Rosicrucianism, as well as possibly the first science fiction novel. This special edition, published by Small Beer Press, was translated and annotated by author John Crowley, and illustrated by Theo Fadel.

The cover and interior design creates a clean and clear design, only adding ornamentation on the title text and chapter facing pages. The text itself is dense with hidden meaning and several pages include images, diagrams, and alchemical inscriptions, scanned from extant online copies of early editions of the work. Crowley’s annotations fit throughout the text in a second color, and Fadel’s illustrations punctuate the narrative and accentuate the strange, absurdist tale.

Scope: book and cover design