Vanja Šmulja
ORCID 0009-0001-7331-3134
National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka
vanja.smulja.nubrs@gmail.com

doi: 10.5937/cit2648077S
Br. 48 (May 2026), No. 77-88

Iconography of Transformation or on the Interpretation of Book
Ornamentation from the Aspect of Magic and Religion

Abstract

As Eliade finely puts it: ‘There is a form of existence unavailable to direct experience’, and it is the symbols that are able to detect the modality of what is real and give meaning to human existence. Not only does the world speak in symbols and use symbols to announce itself, but we also use them to discover both that world and ourselves. Since, according to Spengler, ‘reason is sufficient only to identify misconceptions, but not to find the truths’ and since criticism can only determine the insolvability of great issues, those that, according to Jung, do not exist for us to solve them, but to be in a continuous state of outgrowing ourselves by solving them, we can conclude that, just like in the myth of Parsifal, the key point is to raise an issue. Therefore, in this paper, we raise an issue on the meaning and significance of book ornamentation. Upon realising symbols as independent cognition forms unlocking both the world and consciousness, and taking into account the role of hermeneutics of artistic motifs of book ornamentation in the process of individuation, we distinguish between archetypal and object motifs. The former refer to an activity, a border situation, an archetypal pattern that, within the universal symbolism of magic and religion, express themselves in two ways: first – as motifs of the centre symbolising immortality, growth, and transformation and assuming the shape of a circle, a cross, a pillar, and stairs in terms of art; second – as motifs of biding and knots, of ambivalent symbolism of the Universe tissue as intertwined with the threads of destiny, artistically presented as interweaving. While they essentially present the process of individuation, the latter ones – commonly presented as animals or plants – present what an individual should master in order to reach the destination of that journey. From the aspect of bibliographical terminology and metaphors, they are absolutely and relatively intertwined as the lines of the mould for paper production, and that is the underlying structure featuring the water stamp of human personality. On the road to achieving personal wholeness, the most reliable companion and mean is the book – in an interpretation provided by Milena Cvetkova – the meaning of a God-centred medium. Even if we kept our focus only on what fits between two covers of an item we are used to calling the book – even there we would find enough visible signs of God being present in the world that we can follow. Book ornamentation is an inexhaustible source of symbols as independent cognition forms embodied as those signs. A systematic approach to these subjects in our science still cannot be discussed, but we can say that this paper is an attempt of stepping forward in the direction defined by Jovanka Maksimović, and already taken by Janko Maglovski in his activities focused on establishing the system of fantastic botany. Following that path, we point to the role of hermeneutics of artistic motifs of book ornamentation in the process of individuation, we propose the typology of motifs, and we mark the direction of future research concerning the topic. Finally, Diringer’s claim that the art of book is a search of desire for beauty can only be complemented by a claim – of desire for reason. And stress out the fact that the book has its pragmatic role in human life, since that ultimate reality, as the object of this desire, is not only a matter of eternity but of the present as well, given that what is revealed to us through symbolic images and situations is not, according to Spengler, only the remains of the past poeticised, but an image of the conflicting present that must be conquered and of the future that must be realised.

Keywords:

book ornamentation, artistic motifs, symbolism, typology, motifs of the centre, motifs of biding and knots

Submitted: 19th Novembar 2025.
Correction to the manuscript: 14h February 2026.
Accepted for publication: 20th February 2026.

Iconography of Transformation or on the Interpretation of Book Ornamentation from the Aspect of Magic and Religion by Vanja Šmulja is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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