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IAO: Ophite Iconography by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal – Limited Edition Hardcover
Out of stock
| Weight | 3.0 lbs |
|---|
Limited to 913 copies: 6.5 x 9.5 inches. 224 pages. (The dimensions of a PILLARS book but thicker.) Hardbound 100pts. Cover Material: ‘Paradise’ Black & Green Fine Italian Bookcloth. Gold foil blocking on rounded spine and on the cover. Full Colour interior, with B&W printed Graphite Endpapers with cracked-stone texture. Green & Yellow Headbands. Illustrated throughout by José Gabriel Alegria Sabogal. Fine typography, printed on textured paper: Strathmore Cambric Platinum White 200M archive-quality paper. Individually hand-numbered.
Book has a very gentle bump to spine otherwise in new unread condition
Published by Anathema Publishing
From the Publisher:
IAO is an iconographic proposal, an attempt to illustrate the Gnostic worldview and its myths as understood by the Ophites, a sect of which little is known. It is, perhaps, an exercise of imagination, of what Christian iconography could have resembled if the Ophites had survived. Visually, it follows the sequences of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis and the Biblia Pauperum, reordering their contents according to this heterodox initiative.
“Gnosticism lacks images in a remarkable way, the abstraction of its texts is only equated by the visual silence of its few and discrete remains. And yet the texts are filled with images!
“These images are, in fact, visions, allegories, and myths of a yet unexplored richness. And the ambitious proposal here is to consolidate an iconographic programme…”
Central to this initiative is the reconstruction of the Ophite diagram described by Origen of Alexandria in Contra Celsum – a complex system in which their whole cosmic vision was integrated.
“The three axis, which the images will revolve around, are three distinctive topics of the gnostic worldview: The demiurge (and his relation to the manifested world), the myth of Sophia (and the female aspects of the divine), and the ophite Christology, or the saviour as a serpent.”
IAO rejects the commonly held notion of Gnosticism as a mere form of dualism within Christianity, and explores its relationship with other religions – if only by conceptual coincidence, following Edward Conze’s comparison between Buddhism and Gnosis.
Moreover, the Ophites, by declaring Christ to be an incarnation of the Serpent of Genesis, stood outside the moral spectrum of what is now understood as Christianity. Instead, notions of non-duality can be found in the doctrines of Basilides and the idea of the Pleroma, which are explored within, both conceptually and visually.
¶ CONTENTS:
Introduction
¶ The World as Reflection
¶ Sophianic Figures
¶ The Image of the Pleroma
¶ Appendix. Sibylline Dialogues: An Imaginary Conversation with William Blake
¶ Transcription & Translation of the Sibylline Dialogues
Bibliography
IAO: Ophite Iconography by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal - Limited Edition Hardcover
Verified ownerI have been searching for the standard hardcover edition of IAO: Ophite Iconography for almost 3 months, and found it on Miskatonic Books! Despite of being out of stock at the moment I found it, the “Notify Me” feature from the website never disappoints. Once it’s available, the notification email was sent to me and by clicking the link provided within the email, the book in question was automatically added to the cart. I checked out without even thinking much and voila, it was delivered to me with thoughtful packaging.
The book’s ‘Paradise’ Black & Green Fine Italian Bookcloth is gorgeous, despite it being a standard edition. The shades of green and black sheen shine interchangeably when the light of the environment hits it when you look at it from different angles. I already own the collector’s edition of the book but from my point of view this standard edition stands out more in terms of clean and minimalistic design. The quality of the paper - Strathmore Cambric Platinum White 200M was definitely the right choice for bringing the colour of the author’s artworks to pop.
The artwork and content of the book reflect the gnostic worldview of the Ophites, and the author nailed it. Since there hasn’t been any iconography attach to gnostic teachings of the Ophites (and other sects as a whole), Jose Sabogal has done a fantastic job by interpreting them in detailed explanation and illustrated with his masterful skills of art.
Miskatonic Books | P.O. Box 204, Laurel MT 59044, United States
