Issue after issue, the chosen topics will be tackled from a dual perspective: that of ‘physics’, with an analytical and philological approach, at times genuinely scientific, and that of ‘metaphysics’, to support a vision of a narrative and philosophical nature. The title of the series takes this dual nature into account, paying homage to Giorgio de Chirico, the father of Metaphysics, one of Cerruti's favourite artists and of whom ten paintings are part of the collection.

The first three issues of the Journals will be edited by Andrea Cortellessa, literary critic and literature historian, to whom the conception of this dual approach and of the series title is owed.

Journal no. 1, Alchemies of Colour, is dedicated to the analysis of pigments used to illuminate and illustrate manuscripts and incunabula, as well as their production, marketing and circulation, favouring an in-depth view of the works and supporting that material turn that has been discussed in art history for a couple of decades now. Bernardo Oderzo Gabrieli’s essay, On the market of colours: examples of quality and cost in book ornamentation spanning the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and Maria Labate, Angelo Agostino, Patrizia Davit, Elisa Calà, Francesca Robotti and Maurizio Aceto’s paper, The ornamented books of the Cerruti Collection under the diagnostics lens, the result of the analyses carried out over a year on the precious volumes of the Cerruti Collection, are situated on this scientific, so-called ‘physical’ axis.

On the ‘metaphysical’ side, the Journal is completed by Tiziano Scarpa's unpublished short story An Artist of the Skin, written especially for the occasion, in which the disturbing historical and social effects of colour emerge, and a new project by the English artist Mark Leckey, winner of the Turner Prize in 2008.