From ancient times, the compilation of various collections began, which included small, mostly epigraphic poetic works by various authors. It should be said that in the course of history collections were compiled not only from works of literature, but also, for example, music, cinema, etc. They were called anthologies. Such manuscripts have a certain similarity with textbook materials. What is the meaning of the word "anthology"?
Terminology
The concept has Greek roots. What does the word "anthology" mean? Translated from ancient Greek - "flower garden", "collection of flowers". It must be said that, in addition to poems, aphorisms or sayings, other selected works were collected. An anthology of thought was popular in antiquity. It is thanks to these collections that today we know the sayings of many sages. Who compiled the first anthology? What is it in the modern sense? Let's break it down in the article.
History
When was the first anthology compiled? Whatthis is what we found out above, and now we will give some historical information. The first compiler of such a collection was Meleager from Syria. It dates back to 60 BC. e. Among the authors of antiquity are Phillippus of Thessalonica, Strato of Sardis, and Diogenian of Heraclea. However, all these collections, bearing various names, have not been preserved. Late meetings have come down to the present. For example, in the 10th century, Constantine Cephalus compiled an interesting anthology (what it is, by that time philosophers knew quite well). Constantine used the collections of his predecessors. In particular, the works of Agafia. The next collection was compiled by Maxim Planud. Many researchers concluded when this anthology was studied that this is such a tasteless collection in fact. It did, however, include many curious epigrams that referred to works of art. The most famous was one of the first collections, compiled by John Laskaris. Subsequently, the anthology was reprinted several times. Of all those that existed, only the last version was reprinted. It was compiled by Heinrich Stepan. For this anthology, the author used a variety of sources.
Anthologia inedita
In 1606, Salmasius found a surviving copy of the list of anthologies compiled by Constantine Cephalus in the Heidelberg Library and compared it with the Planud collection. Having written out from the first all the poems that were not in the second, he compiled a new manuscript. However, the work was not published, as well as,in fact, the edition of d'Orville. During the Thirty Years' War, the manuscript was transferred to Rome, and then to Paris (during the revolutionary wars). In 1816 the anthology finally returned to Heidelberg. During all this time, excerpts from the collection were published several times in fragments or in full under the title Anthologia inedita.
The oldest manuscripts
It should be said that all the material, which was subsequently supplemented by idylls of poets, epigrams, excerpts from works found in inscriptions and various writings, was published in 1776 by Brunck. This manuscript was then reprinted by Jacobs with some omissions and explanations. Later, the same author also prepared a second collection on the basis of a copy made in 1776 in Rome. As part of this anthology, there is a collection of Constantine Cephalus with the epigrams of Planud attached to it. Welker added to this edition in 1828-1829 additions taken from various sources. In Paris, according to a similar scheme with comments and translation into Latin by Dübner (who died before the completion of the second volume) in 1864-1872. a new edition has appeared. Selected passages have been translated into German.
Literature of some nationalities
The Eastern peoples have quite a lot of collections that contain various excerpts from poems belonging to one author, or extracts on specific topics from the best writers or poets. Often they are joined by biographicalnotes in chronological order. The oldest known anthology belongs to the people of China. This manuscript is en titled "Shi-Ching" and belongs to the canonical editions. Confucius is considered its author. There are few anthological collections in Sanskrit literature. The Arabs are somewhat richer in this respect. From them, it must be said, the tradition of compiling collections of the chosen ones passed to the Persians. In turn, the Persian collections provided a model for Muslim Hindu, Ottoman, Turkic manuscripts.
Various collections of excerpts from works have popular-historical or pedagogical themes.
It should be said that in our time such collections are compiled for different genres and for different age groups (for example, "An Anthology of Russian Literature for Children").
Roman manuscripts
It should be said that modernity does not have at its disposal a single ancient Roman collection. The compilation of anthologies was begun by writers of a later period. In the process of creating, they drew material from one large collection, which dates back to the 6th century, or took extracts from inscriptions and handwritten writings. The first compiler, Scaliger, published an anthology in 1573. Subsequently, several works by Pytheas were added to it. This edition, which was published in 1590, was used by Peter Burman (junior). He produced a manuscript containing 1,544 separate pieces of poetry. Supplemented and corrected, it was republished in 1835 by Mayer. And in 1869 Reesecompiled a new critical collection, from which quite a lot was excluded. So, briefly we examined the concept of "anthology", what it is, and who were the first authors.
