In The Middle Ages, European collections of florilegia became popular, bringing together extracts from various Christian and pagan philosophical texts.
[3] A widely read series of political anthologies, Poems on Affairs of State, began its publishing run in 1689, finishing in 1707.
[4] In Britain, one of the earliest national poetry anthologies to appear was The British Muse (1738), compiled by William Oldys.
It was assumed that there was a cyclic development: any particular form, say the tanka in Japan, would be introduced at one point in history, be explored by masters during a subsequent time, and finally be subject to popularisation (and a certain dilution) when it achieved widespread recognition.
Academic publishing also followed suit, with the continuing success of the Quiller-Couch Oxford Book of English Verse encouraging other collections not limited to modern poetry.
Robert Graves and Laura Riding published their Pamphlet Against Anthologies in 1928, arguing that they were based on commercial rather than artistic interests.
The self-definition of movements, dating back at least to Ezra Pound's efforts on behalf of Imagism, could be linked on one front to the production of an anthology of the like-minded.