Serena
Riglietti

A month earlier I had been to Milan with my portfolio of drawings, and I had gone to Corso Italia to Salani publishers. So they called me to ask me to illustrate a book that would perhaps become famous, and gave me some indications to start a drawing intended for a leaflet, which would announce its imminent release in stores.

At the time, however, they had not finished the translation of the book yet, and since there was not much time, they gave me some fairly brief indications. I knew that Harry was an orphan, who lived with his uncle and aunt, that a giant — with a big beard and nose — would come later with the task of accompanying him to a magic school where he would find his place, redeeming himself from an unhappy childhood.

So I drew a test board featuring this red-haired boy on the shoulders of a giant, without the glasses and scar, his distinctive mark. That was also the drawing that made the publishers decide I would be the illustrator. After some time Luigi Spagnol wrote how it went:

‘When I think of Serena Riglietti, her first drawing that comes to my mind depicts a giant who — as in some German iconography of St. Christopher — carries a child on his shoulders ... This specific drawing I am talking about was the first one she made, or at least the first one I saw, to illustrate the Harry Potter saga and, from a strictly philological point of view, it was completely wrong. The illustration was needed for a leaflet like the ones we sometimes prepare for booksellers to anticipate the release of an important book; in the ridiculous lack of time, with which we are too often forced to work in publishing houses, Serena had been given brief and inaccurate indications: the giant (Rowling fans will have already understood it) had to be Hagrid, but he was definitely more giant than in the book; the boy, of course, was Harry Potter, but in that first Italian appearance he did not feature any sign of the famous glasses or of the fateful scar in the shape of a lightning bolt; he also looked like he was seven or eight and Hagrid, as I said, carried him on his shoulders: in the first book, in the only scene of the whole saga in which Harry is transported by Hagrid, he is just over a year old, and is not on his shoulders but (this too is now known by all fans) on a black flying motorcycle.

Yet, that wrong drawing was perfect.

I was told that the author wanted each country to have its own illustrator, and I thought it was a very smart choice, because every illustrator, or artist, or whatever you want to call them, also translates their own culture, or at least , I think they should. I was born in Milan, but I lived in Pesaro and I was trained in Urbino, the cradle of the Italian Renaissance. My art school was inside Palazzo Ducale, and the landscape that surrounds us, the Montefeltro, features the colors and atmospheres that are in my drawings. I guess that’s the reason they chose me, if I were born in Los Angeles I might have been out of place.

Even the very first cover, the one in which Harry plays chess with a mouse, featured a Harry without the scar and glasses ... and with red hair, and not even the publishers noticed, now that first cover has become a collection one, and who owns it has a small treasure.

Harry doesn’t play chess with a mouse, Harry plays chess next to a mouse, and the player on this side could be each of us facing the cover. Metaphorically, the chess game is used to tell of someone who is playing their destiny using intelligence, and this was my wish to the author of the book.

This is the cover that I drew without reading the book and knowing only that Harry Potter was a child who would have to do a whole series of tests in the magic school. One of the final tests could have put his life on the line. I was also told that students in this magic school could bring a mouse or owl with them. Nothing else.

So here is the reason for chess and the mouse.

About the mouse hat why ... I’m sorry to disappoint, it’s the question I’ve been asked a hundred times, and now that JK Rowling has asked it, the whole world wants an answer. Yesterday they wrote me from Brazil, from England ... a lot of people would now like a very interesting answer. Except maybe the answer is not, or maybe yes, what I know is that the answer is simple: Harry wears a mouse hat because it is one of the characteristics of my works, I like to put strange hats on the heads of my characters, I do it whenever I get the chance. I myself would like to have crazy hats! And then... in this world it is so difficult to get noticed...!

After all, if after twenty one years you still wonder why, it is why it obviously worked!

My first question, at this point, concerned a detail that not only intrigued all the readers, but also Rowling herself, who asked Salani directly about it : it concerns the presence of that mouse-shaped hat on Harry’s head. Riglietti seemed to beat around the bush a bit to find the explanation, but in the end she declared that she likes to draw funny hats and that these are a bit of a characteristic of hers.

When they asked me to draw a book, they told me it would become famous, but I had no idea what kind of success they were talking about. Perhaps, this lack of awareness helped me not to panic, to work on it as with any other book. As in any self-respecting novel, the character is described in his physical features and character. Until you draw him, it’s as if he were waiting in an imaginary space, then the signs trace what you have in your head, the faces that belong to your life, your hands, the eyes that mean something to you. It’s not a search, it’s rather a rediscovery of something that has always belonged to you. I drew the first drafts for Harry Potter while I was in Sicily, it was December. I had two pencils and an eraser with me, I didn’t have the Potter book because it was in translation. Alessandra Gnecchi Ruscone, then editor of Salani, described the character and the story to me in broad terms, over the phone; I made some drafts and a color drawing, with Harry on the shoulders of Hagrid, a sort of giant with a jacket with enormous pockets, from which a lot of objects came out. Potter had light hair and was without glasses and without a lightning bolt on his forehead. After a month or so the text arrived, and I drew the final version.

I didn’t have any dealings with her. Something happened right after the first volume of the saga came out, and I didn’t really ask myself what it meant: Donatella Ziliotto told me that Rowling was at the Bologna Book Fair, where Salani had a stand made with a large reproduction of my cover. It seems that the author asked why I had drawn the hat with the mouse face on Harry’s head. They simply replied: ‘Because our designer always does it like that...’. I don’t know if she liked it or not, I didn’t ask myself, I don’t even know if my attitude is right, that of never dwelling on these things. I mean: I was at the fair, they told me she was coming, but I didn’t go, I didn’t try to meet her. But for no real reason. It could be simply that I was walking around the fair with my book of drawings, or at some party of the English stands, which I enjoy... I think I’m bad!

What I liked: absolutely the first book. I treated it almost like a picture book. I made the drawings in black and white, but as I do, using grays in all possible shades. I drew the scenes, the characters and the environments giving them a strong identity, I had all the space I wanted. Then the success, the very short working times, the fact that the pages of text increased, forced me more and more to make smaller drawings. Then the films started to come out, and then there was also a sort of request: that the character in the books not be so strongly identifiable, so as not to create too obvious a distance from the character in the film. Let’s say that as time went by the work belonged to me less and less, I had to deal with a series of things. But in our work it’s also normal, it’s not a job without compromises.

JK Rowling commented on the cover of the Italian edition of Harry Potter: the response of the illustrator Serena Riglietti arrives

As we have already told you , JK Rowling commented on the cover of the Italian edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , edited by the illustrator Serena Riglietti.

The writer had admitted that she particularly appreciated the cover for its strangeness:

I’ve always loved that cover because it’s so bizarre. Why the mouse head? Why the giant mouse with a scarf? I’ve never met the illustrator, so I don’t know yet.

Now, thanks to Portus , we have some statements from the illustrator herself, who explained:

This is the cover that I drew not having read the book and knowing only that Harry Potter was a child who in the school of magic would have to face a series of tests. One of the final tests could have put his life at risk. I was also told that the students in this school of magic could bring a mouse or an owl with them. Nothing else.

What about Harry’s mouse hat?

As for why the mouse hat... I’m sorry to disappoint, it’s the question I’ve been asked a hundred times, and now that JK Rowling has asked it too, the whole world wants an answer. [...] Harry has the mouse hat because it’s one of the characteristics of my work, I like to put strange hats on the heads of my characters, I do it every time I have the chance. I myself would like to have crazy hats! And then... in this world it’s so hard to get noticed!

Author of the first Harry Potter cover: ‘I was only told the story vaguely’

The ambiguous meaning of the cover of the first book of the first Italian edition of Harry Potter was revealed by its illustrator Serena Riglietti . Serena took care of the creation of the cover of the book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” . The mystery was linked to the illustration of the cover. Everyone wondered why a giant mouse was depicted with a scarf around his neck and Harry Potter with a mouse-shaped hat on his head. A doubt that not even the author of the saga JK Rowling was able to resolve, asking on Twitter the meaning of those images.

The answer, after years and years of waiting, has finally arrived from the illustrator herself through an interview given to Portus.

Serena Riglietti explains the meaning of the cover of the first Harry Potter book

Looking carefully at the image, several details immediately catch the eye, which led to the emergence of several questions to which Serena gave a clear explanation. The most curious of all concerned the protagonist Harry Potter wearing a mouse-shaped hat while playing chess with a mouse. Serena explained that Harry Potter does not play chess with a mouse but next to a mouse and the real player could be any reader on the other side.

Metaphorically, the chess game indicates someone who plays his destiny using intelligence. The cover that Serena drew comes from several completely summary and incomplete information that had been told to her. She only knew that Harry Potter was a wizard and that in the school of magic he would have to face a series of tests.

One of these, the chess game, would have put his life in danger. He had also been told that students at the school could bring an owl or a mouse with them. Regarding the mouse hat that Harry wears on his head, Serena answers very simply, saying that this detail is the result of her work and is one of her characteristics as an illustrator: she likes to put strange hats on the heads of the characters and adds that she would also like to have one.

So here is the meaning of the cover of the first edition of the book revealed.

It was quite simple. I was 29 years old and had just finished art school. I did what was done in the last century when you started working: you took a folder, put the drawings inside and then you went to talk to the publishing houses .

Salani was still a small publishing house.

When I went to Salani I called from the public booth on Corso Italia, in Milan. Their office is nearby. I asked if they could interview me. They told me to send photocopies, even black and white. I told them I was downstairs and went up. I showed my book and we said goodbye.

When did they call her back?

Right after. They asked me to illustrate a book by Beatrice Masini called La Casa delle Bambole non si Tocca . A month later I was in Sicily, to spend New Year’s Eve. They called me to tell me they wanted to publish a book. They said they were really hoping for it and that they wanted me to illustrate it. It was Harry Potter.

Did you get the drafts right away?

I did some work right away. I went to buy paper and pencil for a leaflet that had to be distributed in bookstores, it was used to present the new releases. They had only told me the plot in broad terms. I drew Hagrid with Harry Potter on his shoulders . Imagine, I had drawn Harry with red hair.

When did you first read the book?

I returned to Pesaro and they sent me the book in the original language . I began to translate some parts to design the cover. Only later did they start sending me the pages in Italian. They came to me from the translator, Marina Astrologo , as soon as she was able to write them.

The cover of Philosopher’s Stone is full of rodents. There’s a huge mouse playing chess with Harry, there’s Harry in a mouse hat, and there’s even a little mouse on the back. Not even JK Rowling could ever say why she chose this.

I know, I know. Two years ago Donatella Ziliotto , editor Salani and a key figure in children’s publishing, had answered precisely this question posed by Rowling. I decided to keep her answer: “Because Riglietti does it that way” . I’m a bit obsessed with particular headdresses. When I did the cover I was only told that this boy had been left in front of his uncle’s door and that he would then go to a school of magic. I knew he had a pet, but they hadn’t told me which one.

In fact, on the very first cover Harry doesn’t even have glasses.

Exactly. Whoever owns that book has a small fortune. Every illustrator has his own imagination to dream what he draws. Maybe I wanted to connect the theme of the theatrical costume, in the end I imagine my characters as if they were all already on stage.

Is there an image you are most attached to?

Definitely. I put myself in front of a child, without parents. One of the images I am most attached to of the first is that of him, with the Invisibility Cloak, who manages to get in front of a mirror where he sees his mother and father again. It is almost an intimate moment.

Serena Riglietti is very grateful and happy to be able to recall the memory of the commission for the cover: «I made the first drawing right here, in Catania in December 1998, I was here for New Year’s Eve and two months before I had been to Salani in Milan because I wanted to be an illustrator. Either I become an illustrator or I become a cook, I said to myself. And then in May 1998 the book with my illustration came out».

It is somewhat paradoxical that the most famous representation in Italy, and certainly among the most discussed in the world, portrays Harry without any sign of his glasses or the iconic lightning-shaped scar . Yet two of Serena’s most important drawings have precisely these characteristics, in addition to the inaccurate, if one can call it that given the circumstances, hair color, coppery in both plates .

One, the first cover of The Philosopher’s Stone , was never published. The hair color was changed and the scar added in the first-ever printing in May 1998.

The other, with Harry on Hagrid’s shoulders , designed for a foldable for the launch of Harry Potter in Italy, was the first drawing submitted to the attention of the great Luigi Spagnol, editorial guide of Salani , the Italian publishing house of Harry Potter .

This table, perhaps less known, is extremely significant also for the historical circumstance. It was in fact defined, from a strictly philological point of view, as completely wrong by Luigi Spagnol, who, in an article in which he spoke about Serena Riglietti, later added: “And yet, that wrong drawing was perfect” .

In fact, everything passes through here, through philological coherence, which for obvious reasons was disregarded: despite the fact that it was what later became a real publishing phenomenon, even Harry Potter was not exempt from the usual lack of time that often comes with working in publishing houses .

This resulted in a very small amount of mostly sketchy and highly imprecise information provided to Serena in preparation for the first plates. Few points of reference , as she herself tells us: the protagonist of the story would have had a pet , would have been a magician , and would have led a chess game that was very important for his life.

Perhaps having had so few details about the story can be considered an example of provident misfortune, since it is precisely in that nebulous context that Serena’s mind was able to travel freely , fully manifesting the expressive need of her evocative style.

A real sliding door , which opens to the dichotomy between freedom and predestination that Serena has always questioned , even during a recent episode dedicated to her of the weekly live streaming of PotterCast.

To further complicate the tangle of our discussions on the case, Serena Riglietti drew the famous table for the first chapter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , not in her hometown of Pesaro, but in Catania , between 1997 and 1998.

She was in Sicily, on holiday during the New Year period, without her precious pencils with her , when she had to go and get paper and watercolours because she was asked to draw Harry Potter .

Riglietti recounted how she knocked on all the doors of the publishing houses in Milan to present her sketches. Among these, the illustrator came across Salani, the publishing house that distributed the Harry Potter story in Italy. “I remember that I called Salani from the telephone booth under the publishing house’s office, asking if they could see my drawings – continued Riglietti – . When they told me to send some photocopies, as everyone does, I said that I was under the office and they made me come up. That’s how I presented my book and, although I returned to Pesaro a little down because I hadn’t gotten a contract, after a few months I received a phone call that was precisely about the Harry Potter assignment . ”

During the meeting, Riglietti also had the opportunity to tell a curious anecdote that links the city of Catania to the first cover of Harry Potter. In fact, when Riglietti received the phone call about her job as an illustrator at Salani for the covers of the Harry Potter saga, she was in Catania .

“When a few months after my meeting with Salani I received the call for the job of illustrating the covers of Harry Potter, I was right in Catania, ” Riglietti said. “ It was December, and I was here in Catania for a beautiful New Year’s Eve! Via Etnea was celebrating, with acrobats who put on an exciting show. And on December 31st my mother called me, since I didn’t have a cell phone yet, considering we’re talking about the last century, telling me that Salani had contacted me. So I called the publishing house again, and they told me that they had purchased the rights to an important book and wanted to assign me the job of illustrating it. However, they asked me to immediately prepare a sketch for the cover,” Riglietti continued.

The illustrator then said that fortunately she always travels with drawing material and so she developed the first three drawings, including the one that became the first cover of Harry Potter, while she was in the city of Catania. “ Between an almond granita and a brioche with a tuppo, I drew the first three tables right here in Catania. Then I ran to a shop and faxed photocopies of these sketches to Salani on December 31st and then went back to celebrate New Year’s Eve in via Etnea that evening” .

“I didn’t really think much about designing the first cover of Harry Potter .” This was Serena Riglietti’s response when asked how she came up with the idea for designing the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. “And let’s say that this was also evident in the final result: it’s no coincidence that the first cover of Harry Potter became collector’s item , before the reprint ,” Riglietti continued in her story . “In fact, not having had much guidance on the plot of the novel, I drew Harry with red hair, without lightning, without glasses, with a mouse nearby and even a mouse hat. However, the covers were later modified and that first version became a collector’s item . ”

“After 25 years, I would probably change something about the covers, but more because in this period of time I myself have changed. For example, the cover of the first book has very delicate watercolor tones, but later I decided to change the use of colors, tones and even technique. Furthermore, since Harry Potter is a classic, rereading it at a different age would give me different sensations. So I would undoubtedly change something,” Riglietti concluded on the subject.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We then continued by examining the cover of the second volume, The Chamber of Secrets. The illustrator explained that here Harry is portrayed from behind because, as the making of the first film was approaching, Salani wanted to avoid the characters on the covers looking like the actors who would be chosen to play them. Personally, I found this very bizarre, given that Riglietti has her own defined style and that the face she gave to Harry had already been seen in the first volume; however, since there were no representatives of Salani to call upon for further details, we simply had to take note of that strange ‘delivery’. 

The most curious note of the interview, however, is another, and it concerns a small detail of the covers of the books that go from 1999 to 2001. To be more precise,  volume II, III and IV of the saga. A detail that I had not noticed until today.

Have you noticed yet?

According to the illustrator, “the wait for the film’s release imposed a certain secrecy on Harry’s physiognomy, for this reason the young wizard had to be drawn showing his profile.”

And in fact it is so, in all three covers Harry Potter’s face is hidden!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I remember that I was forced to draw the illustrations at the top of each chapter of The Goblet of Fire without reading the manuscript, which was being translated in the meantime. The publishing house sent me a few lines of synopsis and that was my basis to draw what I was asked for.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The cover I’m most fond of is The Order of the Phoenix because I finished it on the day my son Francesco was born. Since we decided to have this interview, I like the idea of ​​telling something about my world, which totally influences my work.

It was September 2nd, 2003, the hottest summer of the century until then; actually, the temperature had been around 40 degrees for months, and I was carrying my first baby. The night before the life-guards where I go to the sea had organized a fish dinner on the beach, to end the season and say goodbye; the air was yellow as were the wind, the sun-umbrellas, and people. I felt like I was living in a yellow-toned photograph. While waiting to sit at the table I went to the shore to put my feet in the water. At some point, something touched my feet, and the retiring wave left a very small plastic child on the sand in front of me. It was one of those figurines that are used at Christmas to represent the baby Jesus in the crib. I showed it to everyone, and we decided it was a sign: my baby would be born soon. The next morning I went to the studio, I had to finish the cover of an important book . The work was almost ready, and while I was deciding where to put the red, the punctum that marks the end of all my drawings, I was pondering on the fact that, in the end, the Arabian Phoenix does not have the exclusivity of its destiny; maybe it somehow affects everyone. I was pondering that the birth of a child coincides with the rebirth of a person, who becomes a parent from that day. Therefore, I decided to add the sentence that flows behind Harry ‘ Refecta mea vivo mortis’ : Regenerated, I live my own death. I changed the sentence, removed the initial ‘r’, the ‘v’, and the last ‘is’ are hidden.

I wanted the sentence on the cover to find its extension even outside the book and I immediately imagined the reactions of the readers, which promptly took place.   The cover was finished ... just in time to realize that everything was about to happen; I packed it up and made a phone call to be escorted to the hospital, I also called the courier and told him to come and pick it up in the maternity ward.

It is precisely for a matter of time that we decided to stop with the internal illustrations in the fifth, sixth, and seventh books, not only because the readers had been growing in the meantime.

We then moved on to focus on the fifth cover, where the designer went into great detail, declaring that she had finished her work, in the studio, just before rushing to the hospital for the birth of her first child. She told us that she had been called on the phone by the cleaning lady, who, not having found her at home, wanted to make sure that everything was okay, given that the term of her pregnancy had just expired and any moment could be a good one. Riglietti was intent on finishing the drawing and, absorbed in the operation, had absentmindedly reassured her. But once she had finished her work and had left her concentration, she had immediately realized that she was not feeling very well and so she called the lady back asking her to be taken to the hospital immediately. So, instead of entering the maternity ward with her suitcase containing her personal effects and the baby’s clothes, like all expectant mothers, the designer entered instead with the folder protecting the brand new cover of the Order of the Phoenix , while the astonished courier in charge of collecting it was given instructions to go to the hospital rather than to the studio, as would normally have happened.

The cover of the 5th volume, “Harry Potter and the Phoenix”. I drew it in the last days of my first pregnancy. I had finished the drawing and I was a meter from the table, with my huge belly. I looked at it and thought that something was missing to be able to say that it was truly finished, then I added the words “refecta mea, vivo mortis” in the background. In Latin it is common to find the phrase referring to the phoenix, it means “I live again from my own death”, it also concerned me a bit: when a child is born it is as if a part of you dies to be reborn again... After two hours I was in the hospital, I showed up with the package with the cover to deliver, I asked to call the courier to tell him to come and pick it up there, instead of at my office,and at midnight Francesco was born.

The tone of the books has grown as the readership has grown. How have the illustrations changed over the course of the series?

We faced the problem. First of all we limited the illustrations in the books. In the end we decided to focus only on the covers. I tried to draw them with a less and less edifying, more and more crude sign. In the meantime the readers’ imagination changed. The films came out, and imagine. Many reproached me that my Harry Potter was different from the films. Thank you. They also asked me to hide Harry’s face, to draw him in three-quarters.

Having reached the fifth chapter, The Order of the Phoenix , Serena delivers at the last possible day, sending a table with Harry in the foreground, too late to be modified. A complex drawing, in which the Arabian phoenix is ​​portrayed with the Latin phrase often associated with it: refecta mea vivo mortis . I live again from my own death.

“However, from the fifth volume onwards I rebelled a bit : in fact, I delivered the finished cover to the publishers the day my son was born after a pregnancy spent in a torrid summer. So, on the cover of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, an animal that is reborn from its own ashes, I inserted a Latin phrase behind Harry that means “I am reborn from my ashes” and Harry who finally looks at us. As I said, that day my son was born and Salani didn’t have the heart to tell me to change the drawing” explained Riglietti regarding the cover of the fifth volume of the saga of the little wizard, an illustration that Riglietti also indicated as her favorite in the space reserved for questions precisely because of the memory of the pregnancy that ties her to this experience.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

We then came to examine Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , about which I asked Riglietti if, by composing her name in runes on the Pensieve, she had intended to leave a sort of peculiar signature on the drawing. She confirmed, then mentioning the ‘controversy’ of the ‘linguist’ fans, who have long debated the lack of the sign corresponding to the sound “l”, equivalent to the letter lagaz (or laguz ).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

To tell the truth, I took this fact into consideration, but without being influenced too much. The protagonist grows and so do the readers of the saga, but there is a big difference between a 12-year-old reader and the same boy 10 years later. Keep in mind that in the meantime there were the films, with an imagery with which I certainly could not compete. I tried to remain consistent, taking into account the 10 years that it took, but without worrying about it. In the last “Deathly Hallows” I drew definitely thinking of an adult audience, but always trying to maintain consistency with the rest.

I would have liked to do a white cover, with a red fingerprint and the title. I would have liked it because it was a greeting, the fingerprint could be Rowling’s, mine, and anyone who would have held it in their hands. A sign, a trace, skin marks tell stories, fingerprints fascinate me, it seemed symbolically perfect. Luigi Spagnol asked me to work on a narrative image instead. However, I tried to express the idea of ​​the greeting, with the two characters leaving.

Riglietti explained the meaning of the cover of the seventh volume, which includes on the back cover the profile of a newborn and the eyes of the mother and father, in addition to the presence of the symbolic phrase of the novel “The last enemy that will be defeated is death” .

On December 8, 2007, the book’s cover and dust jacket (the removable one) began to circulate on the Internet. The dominant color of the cover is white, the writing “Harry Potter” is written in red and in relief, on the front there are two indistinct figures while on the back there is a white doe in the background of which a newborn Harry, Lily and James Potter can be seen. Furthermore, in the background there is the phrase, although not entirely, “The last enemy that will be defeated is death”; the hard cover, on the other hand, is black-gray and will be in the same style as the covers of the trunk (the one containing the six Harry Potter books), and it features the two indistinct figures that are also on the dust jacket.

Reflecting

Actually, being in itself a phenomenon, I believe that everyone expects to know who knows what can be behind it: many personal things, yes, but the work itself, for me, was a book to illustrate, no more no less. I often found myself reading really surprising comments, but not only for what they said, but for the very fact that someone wanted to make them. I understand that there is a whole generation that has identified with the character, and that they also consider him a bit of theirs, but I also think that sometimes someone exaggerated a little. It is normal that, especially after the movie, someone found some big inconsistencies in my drawings, or that the readers’ audience, growing older together with the book, at some point found my drawings inadequate to their imaginary that was evolving; but I have never had a worry about it: it is so obvious that when you do something so visible there will be someone who loves your work and others not, if you think about it, the opposite would be really strange. Let’s say, however, that perhaps all this attention to every little detail (or for someone ‘mistake’) aroused a certain dislike of mine for the whole question more than once, so many things happened that I could write a book about it. Sometimes I received emails, even from the other side of the world, with absurd questions, I don’t even think I answered all of them.

Auctions

In fact, on Wednesday, October 31 , Urania Casa d’Aste will auction off all seven covers made by Serena Riglietti for Salani, as well as some preliminaries and internal illustrations of the books. The starting price of the plates varies from €1,500 for a black and white internal drawing up to €30,000 for the original cover of the first novel.

The auction will take place on Wednesday 31 October 2018 at 2:00 pm at Domus Romana, Via C. Battisti 15. Admission is free. All information on the Urania Casa d’Aste website .