Which kind of series is this?

Ten volumes of "Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation" published in English translation by Boydell and Brewer. "Lancelot-Grail" is a medievalist catch-all title for a more or less sequential series of Old French manuscripts which stand (roughly) between Chretien and Malory in the development of the Arthurian legend. Sometimes selections have been published in English, but this is (I'm pretty sure) the only time the whole Work(athon) has been issued in English, so there are no Penguin Classics, Norton Critical Editions, Everyman's Library, etcetc to compete. On the other hand, it was written as a (sorta) series in French not English.

I guess I'm thinking out loud, and it should be a Publisher's Series -- but it feels like a Real Series. Thoughts?

(Also for some reason many LT entries of the first half of this 10 volume series are subtitled (trash-titled?) "1 of 5", "2 of 5", "3 of 5" etc. I have volumes 1 and 9 on my lap and both refer to the series as a 'ten volume set'. Meseemeth that something should be done to correct these incorrect and misleading numberings, but I'm not sure whether to use Canonical Title (he ducks!) or disambig-notz or what. )

Most can be seen in this search: http://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=%22lancelot-grail%22&searchtyp...

Oddly enough I just dug out my copy of that set, which was still in the box it was shipped in, and made a vow to tackle it soon. I'd say it was a 'real' series, since the parts of the cycle were acknowledged as belonging together before modern publications. Having said that, it might be messy to incorporate the parts that have been published separately, e.g. the Penguin Classics Quest for the Holy Grail or The Death of King Arthur.

>1 Crypto-Willobie: I just found out from library data that the reason for the "1 of 5" etc is that when the translation was first published by Garland in hardback in 1992-6 they were grouped into just 5 volumes. It was when they were reissued in paperback by Brewer in 2010 that they were more conveniently spread across 10 volumes.
That's going to make for a complicated series page....

ETA
For instance, what was the content of Vol 5 in the 1992 hardback issue is now the second half of Vol 8 in the 2010 paperback issue.
Might have to set up two different series. And I think they'll have to be publishers' series...?

>3 Crypto-Willobie: If it were me, I'd see it as any other multi-volume publication: the 5-volume set one series and the 10-volume set a separate series. Complete sets would be combined into one work.

It sounds as if the individual volumes of this particular translation would not be good candidates to be published separately from the whole, so I would not consider them a publisher series but a series. Unlike a publisher series, each volume is part of the whole, and the whole would not be complete if any of the volumes were missing.

>4 PhaedraB:

I think you are right, they should be two series.
I'm not sure about Real vs Publisher series though -- as >2 konallis: points out individual books from the longer work have been given separate publication by Penguin (and probably others).

The series data -- collated then separated...
NB, the content/text of each publisher's issue is identical.

THE LANCELOT-GRAIL CYCLE
The most comprehensive account of the story of Arthur, the Round Table and the Grail is to be found in the work known as Lancelot-Grail or the Vulgate Cycle. It tells the story of the Arthurian world from the events of the Crucifixion, where the Grail originated, to the death of Lancelot after the destruction of the Round Table. It draws in many different strands, from the pseudo-historical stories about Arthur to the romances of chivalric adventure and the spiritual quest for the Grail. It consists of five works: the longest is Lancelot, a kind of chivalric history of the Round Table, which leads into the quest for the Grail and Arthur's death. The first two books were added later, and provide an account of events up to Arthur's birth. Not long after the cycle was completed, another writer retained the first two books of the Vulgate cycle but recast the last three books with a rather different emphasis; this version is known as the Post-Vulgate Cycle, and is one of the main sources used by Sir Thomas Malory.

THE VULGATE CYCLE
1. The History of the Holy Grail
Brewer volume 1
Garland volume 1 (part 1)
2. The Story of Merlin
Brewer volume 2
Garland volume 1 (part 2)
3. Lancelot
Brewer volume 3 (I & II), 4 (III & IV), 5 (V & VI)
Garland volume 2 (I, II, III)
Garland volume 3 (IV, V, VI)
4. The Quest for the Holy Grail
Brewer volume 6
Garland volume 4 (part 1)
5. The Death of Arthur
Brewer volume 7
Garland volume 4 (part 2)
THE POST-VULGATE CYCLE
{1 & 2 – the same}
3. The Merlin Continuation {abridging Lancelot and incorporating Tristan}
Brewer volume 8
Garland volume 4 (part 3)
Garland volume 5 (part 1)
4. The Quest for the Holy Grail {revised}
Brewer volume 9 (part 1)
Garland volume 5 (part 2)
5. The Death of Arthur {revised}
Brewer volume 9 (part 2)
Garland volume 5 (part 3)
APPENDICES
Chapter Summaries and Index of Proper Names
Brewer volume 10
Garland volume 5 (part 4)

 
Garland Table of Contents

V. 1.
The History of the Holy Grail / translated by Carol ; J. Chase.
The Story of Merlin / translated by Rupert T. Pickens –

v. 2.
Lancelot, part 1 / translated by Samuel N. Rosenberg.
Lancelot, part 2 / translated by Carleton W. Carroll.
Lancelot, part 3 / translated by Samuel N. Rosenberg –

v. 3.
Lancelot, part 4 / translated by Roberta L. Krueger.
Lancelot, part 5 / translated by William W. Kibler.
Lancelot, part 6 / translated by Carleton W. Carroll –

v. 4.
The quest for the Holy Grail / translated by E. Jane Burns.
The death of Arthur / translated by Norris J. Lacy.
The post-vulgate, part I, The Merlin continuation (beginning) / introduction and translation by Martha Asher –

v. 5.
The post-vulgate, part I continued: The Merlin continuation (end),
part II: The quest for the Holy Grail,
part III: The death of Arthur / translated by Martha Asher.
Chapter summaries for the Vulgate and post-vulgate cycles / by Norris J. Lacy.
Index of proper names / by Samuel N. Rosenberg, with Daniel Golembeski.

Brewer Table of Contents
Volume 1. History of the Holy Grail
2. Story of Merlin
3. Lancelot I, II
4. Lancelot III, IV
5. Lancelot V, VI
6. Quest for the Holy Grail
7. Death of Arthur
8. Post Vulgate I – Merlin Continuation
9. Post Vulgate II – Quest for the Holy Grail & Death of Arthur
10. Appendices

That may be a lot to absorb, so let me point out a couple fer-instances...

Garland Vol 1 = Brewer Vol 1+2

Garland Vol 3 contains Lancelot 4, 5 & 6
but Brewer Vol 3 contains Lancelot 1 & 2.

Yet Garland 1 and Brewer 1 are combined on LT into the same work; and Garland 3 and Brewer 3 are combined on LT into the same work.

I suppose this observation properly belongs in the Combiners group but I suspect most of the series people here are also Combiners; and the combination problems and series problems with these sets are intertwined.

>3 Crypto-Willobie:

That sort of thing happens all the time in SF, especially when translations are factored in. Standard practice is to define the primary series numbering by first publication (so in this case it would be five volumes), and then either have other splittings as "Volume 1a, Volume 1b" etc. or as "Omnibus 1-2, Omnibus 3-4" depending on whether later publications lump or split (or in some cases, both for one series.)

>8 lorax:
Thanks. I thought of doing something like that but in this case the 5vol versions don't split neatly into a and b etc.
For instance Garland 4 contains Brewer 6 and 7 and part of 8; and Garland 5 contains the other part of 8 plus 9 and 10.

And although the Garland issue of this translation preceded the Brewer reissue, the true originals are 13c French mss, and the Brewer division better represents the original divisions.

What I've done for now is to give Garland and Brewer each their own series; but I'm also uncombining mismatched volumes (Garland Vol 1 = Brewer Vol 1+2; Garland Vol 3 contains Lancelot 4, 5 & 6 but Brewer Vol 3 contains Lancelot 1 & 2) so I may end up redoing the series when it's all a bit more straightened out.

>8 lorax:

So, I fiddled on paper with using the Garland divisions as the baseline and fitting in the Brewer arrangement as a,b,c etc.

Brewer toc expressed in terms of relation to Garland toc
Garland/Brewer
1a /v1. History of the Holy Grail
1b /v2. Story of Merlin
2a /v3. Lancelot I, II
2b,3a /v4. Lancelot III, IV
3b /v5. Lancelot V, VI
4a /v6. Quest for the Holy Grail
4b /v7. Death of Arthur
4c,5a /v8. Post Vulgate I – Merlin Continuation
5b /v9. Post Vulgate II – Quest for the Holy Grail & Death of Arthur
5c /v10. Appendices

Garland 1 = Brewer 1+2 is just fine.
But Garland 2 has Brewer 3 and part of Brewer 4
while the rest of Brewer 4 is in Garland 3 along with Brewer 5.
Garland 4 contains 2 and a half books, the last part of Brewer 8 being shunted to Garland 5 along with two other books and the appendices
Except for the very long 'Lancelot' and the very short final two Post-Vulgate stories, Brewer give each book its own volume; where every Garland volume contains multiple books and even partial books. So the Brewer arrangement is more 'organic'.

I could perhaps make the Brewers fir the a,b,c plan but I think it would look very confusing. It's not as straightforward as dividing one book into two, or gathering three into an omnibus.

>10 Crypto-Willobie:

Ugh. I agree that in that case doing two series is probably best.