Never trust originality

Never trust originality is Signor Garamond’s editorial maxim for Manutius’s occult list, and a compact statement of the commercial logic behind Project Hermes. Rather than treating repetition as evidence of weakness, he treats familiar claims echoed by multiple books as proof: the same material is easier to sell precisely because readers encounter it again and again.

Editorial Context

Garamond’s principle grows out of a publishing operation built to avoid risk. At Garamond, the university editions are generally institutional publications or conference proceedings: professors supply the prefaces, novice authors correct proofs and check citations, and the books find a predictable market as textbooks. The costs are covered over several years without royalties or surprises. Alongside this dependable work, the house considers manuscripts left at its door, though few are publishable; the uncertainty is managed by reading everything, since no one can tell in advance what might prove useful.

Manutius follows a different model. It is a vanity press staffed by Garamond, Signora Grazia, a bookkeeper, and Luciano, the disabled shipping clerk. It ships books to their authors rather than to booksellers, and its business depends on keeping those authors loyal, not on finding readers. The contrast clarifies the maxim’s setting: a principle of editorial selection is also a principle for manufacturing a viable market.

The Principle in Practice

When the editors consider manuscripts for the Isis Unveiled series, Garamond resists rejecting work simply because its claims have appeared elsewhere. He argues that readers cannot be expected to buy books about subjects they have never encountered; the series must address the same topics as competing publications. If authors repeat one another and cite one another as authorities, the resulting web of agreement can be offered as confirmation. Originality is not the test of truth—or, more precisely, not the test Garamond uses to decide what can be published and sold.

The maxim therefore collapses two different standards into one. Repetition may make a claim recognizable and commercially legible, while circular citation makes it seem independently supported. Garamond’s language presents the echo as corroboration, even though the editors have just observed that the authors may be copying one another and returning to the same authority. His rule makes the chain of repetition a selling point rather than a reason for scrutiny.

From Editorial Policy to Project Hermes

Project Hermes begins when Garamond identifies a market for Hermetic and occult subjects, which he regards both as lucrative and as a possible cultural service in confusing times. The plan quickly moves from conversation to promotion. Belbo writes an article under the pseudonym Dr. Moebius announcing Manutius’s new series, Isis Unveiled; Garamond then contacts reviews of Hermeticism, astrology, tarot, and UFOlogy under different names, asking about the series he is preparing. When editors call for information, he withholds the titles while implying that ten books are already in the works. The publicity campaign alerts the occult press before the list is fully established.

The rule explains why this campaign can succeed without a breakthrough in scholarship. Project Hermes does not need to introduce a wholly new account: it needs to assemble recognizable subjects and familiar claims into a catalog whose books appear to confirm one another. Garamond’s editorial policy and his publicity strategy thus work in tandem. One makes repetition acceptable inside the books; the other makes readers anticipate the books as part of an already active field.

The Maxim’s Wider Implication

The principle is more than a cynical publishing slogan because it describes the mechanism by which unsupported ideas can acquire the appearance of authority. A claim repeated by several writers may seem to have several sources, even when those writers depend on one another. In the context of Project Hermes, commercial circulation and apparent confirmation reinforce each other: the books repeat familiar material because it sells, and their repetition is then presented as a reason to believe it.

The maxim’s irony lies in its reversal of ordinary editorial standards. Where originality might distinguish a contribution, Garamond distrusts it; where independent evidence would establish a claim, he points to agreement generated by repetition. The rule makes the occult list coherent as a business while exposing the circular logic at its center: a system can look more convincing as its voices multiply, even when none supplies genuinely independent support.