Member: rjkenagy

A very interesting library. Marketing? We share 26 books.

posted by Naren559 at 10:28 am (EST) on May 12, 2007

I had a question as to how to catalogue a book we both share. Perhaps you can help me. I am wondering what would be the "original language" of Merton's "The Travels and Adventrures of Serendipity." (The history of the book's publication is a great example of serendipity, in my opinion). You might say that the original language is English, though the original publication is Italian (the Italian version being a translation of the original English manuscript). Secundarily, however, when the book was finally published in English, it relied not only on the original English manuscript, but also on a re-translation and re-editing back to English from the Italian, especially in parts where the English manuscript itself was unreliable because of age and wear. What do you think? Should the "original language" be English, even though the book was first published in Italian? But doesn't the fact that the English version relied on the Italian version mean that the "original language" should be Italian? What's your vote? Send me a comment.

posted by ltcomdata at 3:37 am (EST) on Sep 21, 2006