The Egyptian priests of Thoth reportedly described the Book of Mankind as being comprised of 36,525 separate books. A certain Hermes Trismegistus is named as the editor of this massive compilation of texts. The surviving number of hermetic texts is, of course, much smaller and modern scholarship is in general agreement that Hermes Trismegistus is a figure of legend. The extant hermetic texts were composed between 100 and 300 CE, but the magus' existence was so culturally desirable that the myth of this wise Egyptian priest grew up quickly and covered its tracks effectively. Early Church Fathers such as Lactantius and Augustine accepted without question the historicity and productivity of Hermes Trismegistus. Lactantius lived at the time when these texts were being produced, and his belief that one sage man could be the source of so much knowledge evinces a readiness to entertain fantastic notions of textual totality. Hermes embodies classical learning and his purported Egyptian lineage is fitting in that Egypt has often been conceived as one of the most ancient cultures and as a repository for all important knowledge.

The quest for textual totality can be expressed either as producing or as absorbing vast amounts of texts. While Hermes Trismegistus was declared to be the inspiration for most of the favored ancient authors, there are examples of the converse activity of obsessively gathering and collecting to be found in the worlds of history and fiction.