[1] Their original title was I libri gialli, where giallo in Italian means "yellow", a reference to the color of the cover background.
The series had a weekly periodicity for decades, while currently is published every fifteen days.
In its long life, the series spawned several companion series, the most successful being I classici del Giallo, which is still ongoing and publishes reprints.
The series usually features translations of American novels, although Italian and European authors have become more frequent starting from the 1990s; authors published include Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Edgar Wallace, Erle Stanley Gardner (the first issue was The Case of Silent Partner), John Dickson Carr, Ed McBain, Dan Simmons, Seicho Matsumoto, Cornell Woolrich, Donald E. Westlake, Bill Pronzini, John D. MacDonald, Lilian Jackson Braun, Loriano Macchiavelli, John Katzenbach, Giulio Leoni, Carlo Lucarelli[3] and many others.
In the pulp collection Il Giallo Mondadori presenta (edited by Alan D. Altieri) authors published include the Italian horror writer Alda Teodorani,[4] and Claudia Salvatori.