Achille Mauri, the president of Messaggerie Italiane and of the School for Booksellers Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri has died

Achille Mauri, President of Messaggerie Italiane and of the School for Booksellers Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri has died. He passed away last night due to a brief illness in Rosario, Argentina, surrounded by the affection of his loved ones.

His wife Diana, his sons Santiago and Sebastiano and the whole Mauri, Ottieri and Zanuso family gave the news.

The last of the five Mauri brothers, Fabio, Luciano, Silvana and Ornella, Achille Mauri was born in Rimini on 4 September 1939. Between 1957 and 1964 he worked for Mondadori, then in Persia for FIAT Impresit and later in Turin for the FIAT headquarters .

In 1965, very young, he made his debut in publishing out of a natural passion inherited from his father Umberto Mauri, at the helm of Messaggerie Italiane, and from his mother Maria Luisa Bompiani, sister of Valentino Bompiani, setting up Achille Mauri Editore, an art book workshop from which come, among others, works on Baj, Castellani, Fontana, Fabio Mauri, Le Parc, Monachesi, Piacentino, Italia Design 70, Expo Osaka 70 and on the Chinese of Furio Colombo. He edits the magazine VS edited by Umberto Eco.

In 1968 he had been Chief Executive Officer of Messaggerie Periodici. A year later he founded, with Messaggerie Periodici and De Agostini, the publishing house L’Esperto, which produces encyclopaedias for children. The encyclopaedias Più Mondo, Famiglia 2000, Creatività, Uni 22, and the I Re series are produced, then acquired by the main European publishers.

In 1974, following a trip to Benin, wanting to document the culture and traditions of that people, he set up the film-television production company Pontaccio (RAI Italian Radiotelevision co-production) and produces the short film Magia d’Africa, of which he is also the director , which will then be broadcast by RAI TV2 in 5 episodes. In the following years he produced other films, including Garage Olimpo directed by Marco Bechis, and wrote film screenplays.

In the years 1983-1997 he had continued his collaboration with RAI, fruit of the development of Pontaccio research in every sector of film-television production and post-production, of graphic elaborations, of the use of chromakey and of the most innovative technologies: more than 3,000 hours of live broadcasting between the programs Tandem (1984, 1985, 1986), Fantastico 7 (1986), Il gioco è servito, Farfadè (1987), Exploring (1987), One morning (1987), TG1 morning (1987), Fresh mind (1989), TGR Economy (1992-1993), Tickling (1994, 1995, 1996 editions), TG3 Morning news (1997). He also edits the volume Saint-Exupéry-L’ultimo volo, a cartoon by Hugo Pratt, published throughout Europe.

Between 1998 and 2004, Achille Mauri started a group of professionals specialized in the integration and development of web applications and expanded his multimedia activity by producing, among others, the CD-Rom The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in exclusive by Gallimard for Italy, and the audiobook The Little Prince narrated by Fabio Concato.

In 2005 the succession to his brother Luciano in the role of Chief Executive Officer of Messaggerie Italiane. The Group adopts new structures and new governance rules suited to a reality which, while anchored to family roots, aims more decisively at development: it is divided into two distinct divisions, publishing (Mauri Spagnol publishing group, headed by Stefano Mauri) and distribution and wholesale (Emmelibri, directed by Alberto Ottieri).

In 2009, following the death of his brother Fabio, Achille became President of Studio Fabio Mauri (Association for Art and “L’Esperimento del Mondo”). In 2012 he assumed the presidency of the BookCity Milano committee.

In 2014 the Mauri Foundation was born, of which he is President, which takes over the management of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers.

He wrote for Bollati Boringhieri Anime and Anchovies and The Paradox of Achilles.