The idea for Boulez – Hommages was born in a Parisian restaurant in 2022. For those who don’t know me, I’m Luigi Castiglioni, and I’ve dedicated my life to the art of fine bookbinding. Fascinated by the endless possibilities of bookmaking, I’ve developed a new artistic language—one that blends the tradition of the artist’s book with my second great passion: music. But let’s go back to that dinner. My host was the editor and playwright Michel Archimbaud—renowned for his interviews with his friend Francis Bacon. At the time, I was working on a photographic project about Pierre Boulez: a silent, image-only book featuring never-before-published photographs by Ralph Fassey, a French-Italian entrepreneur who, since the 1970s, was intimately connected to Boulez and the avant-garde music scene in Europe. Ralph’s archive was extraordinary. But somehow, the idea of a purely photographic book still felt incomplete. Given Archimbaud’s close friendship with Boulez, we began to explore the possibility of asking one of Boulez’s friends to write a text. But who? And with what tone? Then came the spark. Rather than create a conventional or academic book, why not gather a series of personal texts—intimate reflections by those who knew Boulez best? Not a book about Boulez, but a book for him. A choral tribute, seen through the eyes of friends and collaborators, each revealing facets of the man rarely shared before. A work that would welcome the reader—just a few privileged readers—into Boulez’s private world, into a level of closeness never before revealed. The original idea of including just a handful of contributions quickly expanded. Thanks to the invaluable support of Janine Rose, former concert manager of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the list of contributors grew. Daniel Barenboim, architect Renzo Piano (who designed IRCAM with Boulez), conductor Susanna Mälkki (his student), neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux (his collaborator on the relationship between music and the brain), and pianist Alain Planès—whose humorous portrait brings us far from the image of Boulez as the austere figure in a black suit—are just some of the extraordinary voices in the book. I decided to produce 150 hand-numbered copies of Boulez – Hommages, along with 50 additional copies reserved for the contributors. While 150 may seem a small number in traditional publishing, it is a monumental undertaking when every copy is printed, assembled, and bound entirely by hand. Each book bears the original, handwritten signatures of the contributors, accompanying their texts printed in lithography at the historic Giulio Vernocchi Press in Rimini, Italy. The paper used is Fabriano Tiepolo 290g, 100% cotton—widely considered the finest paper in the world. It is crafted by the Fabriano Paper Mill, founded in 1264, where cotton fiber paper was invented. The very same techniques, unchanged for centuries, were used to produce the sheets for this edition. The binding is taking shape now, entirely in my workshop—Legatoria Anonima Amanvensis—using genuine veal leather and traditional methods. I can complete about five copies every three weeks. Each long day I spend working on these bindings feels like a quiet dialogue with Boulez’s legacy—an act of homage made tangible through craft.