Abstract If target texts should be accorded the same amount of serious critical attention usually reserved for source-side literature, increased study of the institutional forces instrumental in its production and mediation is necessary. Such study, to be of documentary value, could be conducted empirically on a case-by-case basis in order to uncover pre-textual elements as, among others, legal and socio-economic issues, in-house rules, publisher-translator relations, and the often rhizomatic personal constellations formative in the constitution of the translated text. The sample case chosen is meant to open further discussion of the issues involved.