[mod.L., f. flōrileg-us flower-culling, f. flōr(i)-, flōs flower + legĕre to gather; a literal rendering of Gr. ἀνθολόγιον ANTHOLOGY, after the analogy of spīcilegium.] a. lit. A collection or selection of flowers; used transf. in the title of a book (see quot.). b. A collection of the flowers of literature, an anthology.
a. 1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4901/4. A compleat Florilegium of all the choice Flowers cultivated.
b. 1647. C. Harvey, Synagogue, xxvi. 5 (1679), 34.
| Sublimate graces, antidated glories, | |
| The cream of holiness, | |
| The inventories | |
| Of future blessedness, | |
| The Florilegia of celestial stories. |
1716. M. Davies, Athenæ Britannicæ, III. Crit. Hist., 4. Antonius Schorus’s Ciceronian Florilegiums.
1815. Southey, Lett., 15 Aug. (1856), II. 423. Some [of Kirke White’s poems] … were as perfect as he could have made them at any age, and must hold their place in our popular Florilegia as long as the English language endures.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 373. We have made but a small florilegium from Mr. Hazlitt’s remarkable volumes.
† Also in anglicized form Florilegy.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 29. Glossaries: Florilegies.
