diff --git a/app/Models/BookRepository.php b/app/Models/BookRepository.php
index d6f3fb5e..bc647023 100644
--- a/app/Models/BookRepository.php
+++ b/app/Models/BookRepository.php
@@ -1205,10 +1205,13 @@ public function updateOptionals(int $bookId, array $data): void
                 $cols['numero_serie'] = $seriesNum;
             }
         }
-        if ($this->hasColumn('traduttore') && !isset($cols['traduttore']) && !empty($data['scraped_translator'])) {
+        // No earlier branch sets $cols['traduttore']/'illustratore', so the
+        // "not already set" guard the sibling fields use would be dead code here
+        // (and PHPStan flags it as impossibleType). Assign directly when scraped.
+        if ($this->hasColumn('traduttore') && !empty($data['scraped_translator'])) {
             $cols['traduttore'] = \App\Support\AuthorNormalizer::normalize((string) $data['scraped_translator']);
         }
-        if ($this->hasColumn('illustratore') && !isset($cols['illustratore']) && !empty($data['scraped_illustrator'])) {
+        if ($this->hasColumn('illustratore') && !empty($data['scraped_illustrator'])) {
             $cols['illustratore'] = \App\Support\AuthorNormalizer::normalize((string) $data['scraped_illustrator']);
         }
         if ($this->hasColumn('tipo_media') && !array_key_exists('tipo_media', $cols)) {