A florilegium is a compilation of images, maxims, or sayings, taken from the works of one or more authors or from musical works (see below, 2.) and arranged in the manner of a dictionary for rhetorical application. The term, derived from the Greek anthología (“flower gathering”) and dating only from the 16th century, evokes the process of “gathering flowers [of words]” (Latin flores legere, literally “to collect blooms”), while the related term “(printed) commonplace-book” current in the English-speaki…