The word "anthology" is of ancient Greek origin and literally means "flower garden" or "bouquet of flowers." However, it is used mainly in a figurative sense.
Anthologies of the ancient and medieval era
The term "anthology" means a collection of small-volume literary works - stories, poems, essays, created by different authors. As a rule, when compiling such literary collections, the works are combined by genre or theme.
Information has been preserved about anthologies compiled by the inhabitants of ancient Greece. For example, in various written sources, collections of aphorisms and epigraphs are mentioned, which were created by Meleager from Godard, Philip from Thessaloniki, Straton from Sard, Diogenian from Heraclea. It is also known that similar collections were created by some ancient Roman authors. Unfortunately, these works in the original have not survived to the present day.
The most ancient of anthologies that have survived to the present date from the 10th century. It is called the Palatine Anthology. This anthology was compiled by Konstantin Kefala. When working on this collection, Kefala used the works of his predecessors. Subsequently, the anthology of Mullet was rewritten many times. In the 14th century, the monk of Constantinople, Maxim Plound, selected part of the works from it, supplemented it with a large number of epigrams and several poems, and then published it under the guise of his own anthology.
At the end of the 16th century, Joseph Scaliger published an anthology of Catalecta veterum poetarum, incorporating excerpts from ancient Roman writings. Then Pierre Pete published two more collections of anthologies. These books were repeatedly reprinted subsequently.
The eastern peoples also had numerous examples of such literature. For example, the famous Chinese sage and philosopher Confucius is credited with authorship of the Shi-Ching anthology. The custom of compiling these collections was characteristic of the Arabs. After they conquered Persia, the Persian authors also adopted this habit, creating a number of poetry collections. And already from the Persians it was adopted by numerous neighbors, including Ottoman Turks and Hindus.
